HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 




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HISTORY of MONTAGUE 

A TYPICAL PURITAN 
TOWN 



[Illustrated] 
By Edward Pearson Pressey 

INTRODUCTORY 

By Robert P. Clapp. 
i 

Including 

SHORT HAND NOTES 

of CONVERSATIONS with the OLDEST 

INHABITANTS, AD. 1895 

By Mr. Clapp 

<s 

a HISTORY of the GUNN FAMILY 
By Mrs. Lyman 0. Gunn 



Published by THE NEW CLAIRVAUX PRESS 

Montague, Mass., 1910 



Copyright, 1910, by 
EDWARD P. PRESSEY 



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Contents 

BOOK I. Invocation 

Inspired by other New England historians, and by the charms 
and legends of "Hunting Hills," Mr. P. undertakes the History 
of Montague. 

BOOK II. Introductory 

A discourse treating Montague history in a general way to beguile 
a summer's afternoon; Montague field day of the P. V. M. A. F 
September 10, 1895. 

BOOK III. The First Inhabitants 

Reveals some knowledge of the creatures that left footprints in 
the red sandstone. 

BOOK IV. Indians 

Since the Indian always behaved himself in Montague, we let 
you know how on the whole, he laughed, prayed, sung, wrought, 
and spun yarns of magic. 

BOOK V. Pioneers 

History of the lumber camp that supplied Sunderland with 
boards for its first houses in 1714 and of the first settlers of the 
land. 

BOOK VI. Winning Democracy 

Just how the Congregational church hatched modern democracy 
when the Baptists and Unitarians cracked its shell. 

BOOK VII. Causes and Conduct of the Revolution 

How Montague helped save the democracy she had won and 
avoided paying tribute money to George III.'s favorites. 



6 CONTENTS 



BOOK VIII. The King's Highway 

All about the old county roads and turnpikes and tavern life. 

BOOK IX. The River 

Its ancient fisheries, lumber rafts and commercial boating with 
Dewey's River Odyssey. 

BOOK X. Drum Taps, 1786-1865 

History of Montague's romantic share in Shays' rebellion and in 
the Civil War, and her opposition to some other wars. 

BOOK XI. Old Town Memories 

Being a transcript of notes on conversations with the oldest in- 
habitants and a brief Gunn history. 

BOOK XII. Peskeomskut 

Tells how Turners Falls began and grew and what she amounts to. 
BOOK XIII. Old Town Industries 

Recovers from oblivion something about our old-fashioned in- 
dustries; and records the revival, in 1901, of making beautiful 
things. 

BOOK XIV. Education 

A complete- history of our schools from the beginning, including 
the location of every district school. 

BOOK XV. Religion 

The religion of the Puritans and the era of split, good feeling and 
don't care. Religion is our deepest sincerity. 

BOOK XVI. Visions 

The charm and resources of our waters caused Philip to center 
his Indian commonwealth here. About Montague "City," 
Crocker's scheme and the old town. 

APPENDIX 

Gives complete lists of town officers from 1756-1910, history of 
Lake Pleasant, new Indian finds, and mixed matter. 



HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 



Book I -^Invocation 

THE tale of human life is enchanting. The life of a 
community is a beautiful, a divine mystery. In it we 
have the law, the orderly customs of men, which are a 
part of nature, akin to those laws which fix the orbits 
of the stars. In it we have deposits of tradition and 
ancient lore which spring from the subsoil of the imagina- 
tion and heart of the childhood of the race. We have 
manlike loyalties which hold the people true to some pole- 
star of nationality, even to the crack of doom. We have 
great visions and ideals which beckon them from afar 
and make the work of their hands, in time if they prevail, 
to blossom into beauty. And finally we have in the 
hours of fulfillment the feasting and the song, the joyous 
contemplation of all the things that God and man have 
done amongst us. 

Fellow Citizens: I invite you to the feast and song, 
to celebrate a stage of this community's life journey, to 
close the books of two centuries' ideals and deeds, while 
the twentieth century, on fresh fields and pastures new, is 
dawning. A former minister in Montague, David Cronyn, 
was asked what salary he got. " Fifteen hundred dollars," 
was the reply. Surprise was expressed, whereupon he ex- 
plained: " I get five hundred dollars in money and a thou- 
sand dollars in scenery." The scenery of our banquet 
house is superb and its walls are frescoed and tapestried 
with memories. I invite you to the feast of memories and 
traditions of folks whose names our hills and streams and 



8 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

old homesteads still bear, of a once little town, so modest, 
in 1833, that a citizen of Worcester described it as "one 
of the most obscure towns on the river "; yet it was unfail- 
ingly faithful over a few things and has been entering into 
a large joy. 

Newcomer: When you look out hereafter upon Mt. 
Toby I want you to see a beautiful mountain above a 
lovely valley; and I want you to see besides the spirits 
of the air and of its wooded heights, the Mikumwess, the 
little folk of the rock and the "Thunder family" which 
the Indian saw there. I want you to read the pretty 
legends of our brook banks with their 150 kinds of blos- 
soms. I want you to see the stream of travel and traffic 
(of the days of Uncle Elisha Ward's gig), which once 
poured over our ancient turnpikes and more ancient 
river. I want you to sit with me around old tavern fires 
and listen to tales of the old time. Join with me, if you 
will, in a song of tender memory over old hearthstones. 
Dream over with me the old dreams of cities by the water, 
Montague City, Peskeomskut, Grout's, and the summer 
city by the gem of waters in the Plain. Raise with me 
the psean of progress as new and larger enterprises sup- 
plant the old ones and the old ones rise newborn, Phcenix- 
like, out of their ashes. Sing with me then the new song 
of our craftsmen and school children and plowmen. And 
in fellowship and the fear of God let us eat, drink and be 
merry; for to-morrow we sleep with the fathers on the 
dunes above the meadows. 

I have undertaken to write a town history on a new 
plan. Most New England town histories are things of 
shreds and patches, of recollections, annals and genealo- 
gies, promiscuously thrown together. I have tried to as- 
similate a lot of the usual material, rather than to print 



BOOK I. INVOCATION 9 

haphazard every available fact. I hope the result is a book 
rather than a student's notebook. I may have failed; 
but that is another story. The aim is to tell the pro- 
gressive development from Puritan principles of a typical 
New England town. If America at the end of the nine- 
teenth century is comprehensible at all, it is in some such 
miniature, under some such magnifying glass as I have 
used. I have found an interesting plot here as in those 
popular novels, truth stranger than fiction. I find absorp- 
tion and excitement in the problem of what, out of all these 
beginnings, we shall be, when we reach that ideal, to the 
promise of which two centuries have clung and towards 
which our little firmament still earnestly moves. 

At the outset of the book your own flesh and blood 
greets you old town folks, as I have greeted the neophyte 
and the stranger and now greet you all with reverent 
memories. My task is to commend Puritan Democracy 
and the romance of its coming to a twentieth century, 
cosmopolitan Montague and to the general reader. Issues 
that live through time and overstep the bounds of race 
and creed, imaginations that for their beauty never grow 
old are the inspirations of my story, and simple facts 
tersely stated are its chosen substance. 

I write this history because I must. When I was nine 
years old, Sebastian Griffin, an old man of Auburn, New 
Hampshire, where I lived, wrote The Legends of Lake 
Massabesic, which charmed my imagination. My dis- 
tant kinsman Benjamin Chase, published a history of the 
noble town of Chester. And it was in those years I made 
up my mind to find a New England town to write about. 
Local traditions since then everywhere stick to my mem- 
ory. I brought it up on Parker's Londonderry, McGregor's 
Nvifield, Morrison's Windham — burning the midnight oil, 



10 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

when a boy, and all the world was an undiscovered country 
and the past was my fairyland. And when I became a 
college student I made annual pilgrimages to Lexington 
and Concord and memorized the New England poets 
about old places and legends. Finally I was more than 
half a man at Rowe, when my recreation was recovering 
some knowledge of the people who once lived on the site 
of every old cellar hole in that mountain town. The late 
Warren Bardwell of Montague once said to me: "When I 
was a young man and we got five cents to spend, we bought 
a glass of beer; now they take a trolley." But mine, when 
I got enough, was some old town history. Ten years ago 
I began to collect material for this history of Montague. 
My first installment of lore came from a conversation 
with Rufus Thornton about Indians. Now it has grown 
to these proportions with material to spare. Some day 
I shall have to print a second volume. Meanwhile I 
offer this as the first fruits of a life long interest in such 
things. 

And one word more: I make this offering not to the 
antiquarian and the graybeard amongst us alone; I hope 
the style will interest and inspire the young especially. 
I invoke the new American especially as well as the old, 
the general reader together with the locally born. I have 
told the story in an orderly way with epic brevity and a 
keen sense of life and beauty. 

/ dedicate this history to the fifteen hundred school children 
of Montague and to their teachers. 



Book II -+- Introductory 

AN ADDRESS BY ROBERT P. CLAPP, 1895 

FELLOW TOWNSMEN:— It was the custom with a 
pious clergyman of Georgia, a gentleman of color, in 
the days which followed the war, to begin the exhorta- 
tions to his congregation with the simple salutation, 
"Bredderen," immediately adding, however, "and by 
'bredderen' I mean de sisteren, too, for de bredderen do 
embrace de sisteren." With like brevity I may greet you, 
to-day, well knowing that the good citizens of Montague 
on this occasion embrace with the arms of a generous hos- 
pitality our friends from across the peaceful river, giving a 
most cordial welcome to the members of the Pocumtuck 
Valley Memorial Association. 

Believing, under the influence of that local pride which 
easily possesses us on an occasion like the present, that 
our town affords as attractive a place as any in the county 
for a "field meeting" of your venerable society, and ac- 
knowledging the honor which your presence here implies, I 
can but regard it as a matter of mutual regret that your 
visit has so long been delayed; and I am directed by the 
committee to impress upon your resident members at the 
outset the fact that Deerfield Mountain and Taylor Hill, 
nature's barriers against the incursion of hostile Indians 
in the remote past, were never intended to cut off an inter- 
change of friendly courtesies at the present day. 

Mr. President, and members of the committee, in honor- 
ing me by your invitation to speak for the old town, 



12 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

though you have rather illustrated your kindness than 
shown evidence of good judgment, you have kindled a 
warm feeling in my heart. Adopted by the town of Lex- 
ington, a town whose heritage of historical treasure, though 
justly shared by all in the commonwealth, yes, by our 
whole country, is held dearest by Lexington citizens them- 
selves, I might be thought to have renounced my earlier 
allegiance beneath the spell of her charms. But not so. 
Each succeeding year, as I return to Montague, more and 
more do my feelings find expression in those lines of Gold- 
smith, fervid with patriotic devotion to home and native 
land: 

Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, 
My heart, untravell'd, fondly turns to thee. 

The subtler charm with which the associations of boy- 
hood invest nature in the region of one's birth is the germ 
from which springs love of country ; and in so far as a man 
is unresponsive to this sentiment he lacks that element in 
character which sets before him an ideal involving the 
consideration of other than mere selfish ends. There is, 
I am sure, no native of Montague who will not join me in 
saying to her, with tender appreciation, as he wanders 
through these green meadows or climbs your stately hills, 

Thy shades are more tender, thy sunlight more dear 
Than descend on less privileged earth. 

Your speaker to-day would have been glad to satisfy 
the voracious antiquarian appetite of this society, which 
justly demands that every town gather the minutest de- 
tails of its early history, the exact age of every old house, 
the names of every settler and a circumstantial account 
of early life and manners. But such a task would have 
been far beyond the opportunities at his command and 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 13 

contrary to express stipulation made by him when con- 
senting to speak. Departing, then, a little from the cus- 
tom which has usually prevailed, the address to-day will 
show less exhaustive research among the old records and 
will deal with the past in a somewhat general way. It 
will, I trust, be found of interest and profit to recall a few 
characteristic incidents, to contrast the old life with the 
new, and to see what may be the promise of the future. 
Such facts as have been gathered are intended merely as 
clues which may be of service hereafter to him who shall 
write a history of the town. May this work not be much 
longer deferred; and do you, citizens of Montague, see to 
it that the town records, now in a confused and dilapidated 
condition, with some parts missing, are speedily cast into 
as good shape as the services of an expert copyist can put 
them. 

As this is a day for considering the old town we need not 
pay further regard to our suburbs of Turners Falls and 
Millers Falls than to point out what a privilege it has been 
for them to possess a share of our soil. Besides, we may to- 
day fairly indulge a spirit of mild resentment at the former 
of these thriving villages for having captured and carried 
away from us our town meeting. As one of the institu- 
tions established by the fathers, it deserves to be here now, 
close by the site of the first school and church, the three 
together symbolizing the practical sagacity, the learning, 
and the piety of New England. 

The origin of Montague as a town carries us back in the 
history of this fair valley of the Connecticut only a hundred 
and forty-two years. I say only a hundred and forty-two 
years, because the date of our incorporation in 1753 is 
but halfway in the course of events, traced backwards to 
the first settlements in the valley. When the yeomen who 



14 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

occupied lands within the limits of our present boundaries, 
accepting the provisions of the incorporating act, found 
themselves citizens of Montague, granddaughter of the 
venerable town of Hadley, they were as far distant from 
the early days of the grandparent as we now are from 
the first administration of Thomas Jefferson. Deerfield, 
Northfield and Sunderland also, were well advanced in 
years, the first bearing scars which the tomahawk had 
left in 1675 and 1704, and the other two rising above the 
perils and disasters which had thwarted their first attempts 
at settlement in the closing half of the seventeenth century. 
In the dignity, therefore, which mere years confer, Monta- 
gue falls below most of her neighboring towns. 

Though settled too late to share, as a town, the perilous 
experiences and heroic sacrifices which consecrated with 
blood the soil of Deerfield, Hadley, Hatfield and North- 
field, Montague was ready to do her part, and more, at 
the first opportunity she had to acknowledge the debt 
which all posterity owed the heroes of Pocumtuck Valley. 
In the final war against the French and Indians, which 
began in 1755, and ended in the subjection of Canada by 
the English in 1760, Montague furnished more than her 
quota of soldiers, and we shall find that in later days of 
peril and disaster the fires of patriotism never burned low 
within her borders. 

Until the outbreak of King Philip's War in 1675 the 
settlers throughout both Massachusetts and Plymouth 
had, in the main, lived on friendly terms with the natives; 
and though the deluge of fire and blood which swept over 
these two colonies at the command of Philip during the suc- 
ceeding two years, the busy hand of the red man during 
the "woeful decade" of William and Mary's War (1688 
to 1698), and the bloody raids made by the Indians and 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 15 

their French allies upon the frontier in the ten years fol- 
lowing 1703, kept life filled to the full with the discipline 
of grief and pain, yet the power of the savage, at the 
time to which our minds revert to-day, was broken, and the 
people in this region, save for two short periods hereafter 
noted, had little occasion to fear his further attacks. 

When, therefore, Ebenezer Marsh began the settle- 
ment at "Hunting Hills," now Montague, by building for 
himself a rude cabin at the southerly foot of Taylor Hill 
(near the Nathan Hosmer place), in 1726 or '7, the scene 
enacted at "Bloody Brook," two hundred and twenty 
years ago to-morrow, was an event which had occurred 
before he was born; the fight at Turners Falls was almost 
as far in the background of the history of Indian warfare; 
and, though the horrors of the event lay clearly in his 
recollection, twenty-two years had elapsed since that cold 
December morning in 1704, when the half -starved and 
blood-thirsty French and Indians fell, with firebrand and 
tomahawk, upon Deerfield's sleeping inhabitants, while the 
darkness yet obscured the dawn, and led away a full third 
of them captives, as the flames of the burning houses 
lighted up the scene of pillage and murder. 

The savages had not, however, yet quitted this section 
forever. The peace of Sunderland and Hunting Hills 
was never, in fact, disturbed by any serious attack, but 
the intermittent raids made up and down the valley, under 
the influence of the French, from 1722 to 1726, and again 
in 1744-48, were such as justly to give the inhabitants 
much alarm. Under the self-imposed burdens of blaz- 
ing out roads in the primeval forest and clearing lands 
which might yield a scanty subsistence while they builded 
for themselves homes amid the privations of the wilderness, 
the settlers were unable alone to provide for their defense. 



16 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Farmers at Northfield, in the autumn of 1723, having 
twice been surprised and killed, or taken prisoners by 
bands of roving Indians, the General Court tardily made 
provision, the following year, for a fort called the " Block 
House," on the northerly side of that town. Sunderland, 
in the winter of 1724, sent in a complaint because men 
whom the government had provided the preceding sum- 
mer had not appeared, the petition averring that the inhab- 
itants had been put to great difficulties in guarding and 
scouting for themselves. The Court responded by order- 
ing that nine men be posted at Sunderland for the purpose 
of guarding the farmers "when getting in their harvest." 
Following 1726 were twenty years of comparative free- 
dom from depredations, embracing the period during which 
a considerable number of farmers were building homes at 
Hunting Hills. Though they saw the Indian only as he 
roamed through the woods killing game and paddling his 
canoe up and down the Great River in quest of shad and 
salmon, prudence required that they keep themselves 
armed against such stragglers as they might casually 
encounter. Some of the houses were provided with pali- 
sades. Deacon Clapp's father, Eliphaz, who built the 
substantial residence now occupied by his son, on Federal 
street, found, rotting in the earth, the stubs of palisades 
which surrounded the house occupied, on the same com- 
manding site, by Lieutenant John Clapp, common ances- 
tor of the several families of that name still in Montague. 
The old house was bought by John in 1754. That enthusi- 
astic and well-informed lover of antiquities, Mr. Jonathan 
Johnson, is authority for the statement that a few rods 
northwesterly from the barn on Dr. Shepard's place (after- 
wards occupied by Emery Ball) traces of a fort are dis- 
cernible to-day. It was called Fort Ellis, or Allis, probably 



18 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

contuckquash and Corroheagan, lying over against ye 
mouth of Pocomtuck river" — was nine miles from Mo- 
hawk brook (Indian name, Nepesoneag), which was taken 
as the boundary between Swampfield and Hadley. The 
line drawn east cut off a small portion of the upper end 
of Lake Pleasant. A map, now to be seen among the 
State Archives, shows that the proprietors petitioned, in 
1714, for an addition to their territory three miles wide 
on the east. The court disallowed the petition, but con- 
firmed the plat showing nine miles in length and four in 
width. In 1729 or 1730, however, a strip two miles wide 
was granted, making the width six miles. This, and not, 
as some have said, a strip lying east and west, next north 
of the Papacontuckquash, was the so-called Two Mile 
Addition. 

The act creating the northerly part of Sunderland, or 
Hunting Hills, a separate parish or precinct, was passed 
June 17, 1751. The territory embraced began at the 
Connecticut River, twenty rods north of the mouth of 
Slatestone Brook (now known as Whitmore's Brook); 
thence ran east to the corner of the town bound — i. e., six 
miles; — thence north, on the town line, to the northeast 
corner of the town; thence on the northern boundary line, 
west to the river; and thence on the river to the brook 
first mentioned. It was, however, ordered in the same 
act, that the lands lying between said north line of Sun- 
derland and Miller's River should be annexed to the 
Parish, "to do duty and receive privilege there." These 
were a part of the so-called unincorporated, or province 
lands. The act further directed that such portions of 
these lands as were then "unappropriated" be sold at 
public auction, the purchaser undertaking to settle ten 
families on the tract, build ten houses, eighteen feet 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 19 

square, with seven-foot stud, and bring into condition for 
tillage five acres of land for each family, within three 
years from the sale. 

Within the limits of this addition lay the Bardwell 
grant. It has been a pleasing tradition among the Bard- 
wells of the present generation, that the General Court, 
in grateful remembrance of a service rendered by their 
ancestor, Robert, who settled in Hatfield, by bearing an 
important dispatch through to the Connecticut Valley, 
under circumstances of great peril, voluntarily bestowed 
upon him a tract of land a mile square. But alas, the 
cold facts of history, unearthed from the State Archives, 
dispel the romance of the event. It turns out that Robert 
Bardwell was a survivor of the Narragansett fight, which 
occurred in 1675; and that his grandson, Samuel, of Deer- 
field, the great-great-grandfather, I think, of our Warren, 
more than fifty years later, in 1733, petitioned for a pen- 
sion! The court responded by granting to the heirs of 
Robert, 100 acres on the east bank of the Connecticut. 
Upon this tract Gideon Bardwell settled in 1761, moving 
over from Deerfield with an ox team, which bore his 
worldly goods, and his two-year old son, Samuel, the grand- 
father of the generation now living. The car in which the 
boy came was a portable wooden cupboard, divided into 
compartments, and pressed into service on this occasion 
as a sort of improvised Pullman sleeper. The infant was 
given the lower berth, while a pig was snugly stowed away 
in the upper. Gideon, we are told by his living descend- 
ants, built as his homestead the Chauncey Loveland house. 

The first corporate meeting of New Parish was held 
July 29, 1751, in the house of Joseph Root, possibly the 
oldest house in town now in existence, — the present home 
of Spaulding Pierce; its covering boards, fastened on with 



20 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

wooden pins, and the solid oak partition walls within, 
attest its great age. Beyond the simple record of officers 
chosen, the only vote recorded is, "That we will hire 
preaching among us." Joseph Root was chosen parish 
clerk; Messrs. Joseph Alvord, Eliphalet Allis and Samuel 
Smead, assessors; Enoch Bard well and Ebenezer (or Eph- 
raim) Marsh, collectors; and Samuel Bard well, Simeon 
King, and three others, a committee to warn future meet- 
ings. I can find no record of another parish meeting, nor 
any of a town meeting previous to December, 1755. 

It would be hard to name many of Montague's earliest 
citizens. Not until 1774 were they numerous enough to 
entitle the town to a separate representative to the Gen- 
eral Court. By the original act, the new town was to join 
Sunderland in the choice of one. Either Ebenezer Marsh, 
or possibly Samuel Taylor, was the first settler, the time 
being about 1726. Mr. Taylor threw up a house lot 
granted him in that year at the south end of Hunting 
Hill, — the hill that now bears his name, — and received one 
in return situated at the northerly end, though the ex- 
change was made in 1730 or 1731. Samuel Harvey, 
William Allis, Joseph Root and Nathanie] Gunn (the 
latter the great-grandfather of the late Elijah and Phelps 
Gunn) came among the earlier settlers. Nathaniel's home- 
stead occupied the site of Edward P. Gunn's home. The 
latter's great-grandfather (also named Nathaniel) kept 
a tavern there, until some time later than the birth of his 
son Elihu in 1763. Being the place where wayfaring 
Baptist ministers always stopped, it came to be known as 
the Baptist tavern. 

In 1745, a field on Millers Plain was divided into eighty 
lots, and it may be assumed that the grantees of these lots 
were nearly coincident with the persons then inhabiting 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 21 

our territory. Among them, the only names familiar 
among the inhabitants of to-day are Marsh, Root, Taylor, 
Sawyer, Graves, Gunn, Scott, Smith, Billings, Wright and 
Field. 

It is worth while here to note that Montague village 
was never formally laid out or plotted. The grouping 
of houses here as a center was an accidental result of the 
scattered locations chosen by the first settlers. Always 
eager to possess land, and land in abundance, the pioneers 
from Sunderland first occupying the south part of the 
township, the Meadow and Taylor Hill, spread over the 
eastern territory, possessing themselves of Harvey, Bald, 
Chestnut and Dry Hills, and pushed on even to the north- 
ern bounds. The Scotts becoming numerous as holders 
near the present village, this portion of the town was 
known as "Scotland." It was naturally selected as the 
site for meeting and schoolhouses, because the settlers had 
built on all sides of it — not especially in the central tract. 
The Sunderland proprietors divided a large field in Mon- 
tague among themselves in 1719, into two tiers of lots, 43 
in each; but these lay in the meadow west of Taylor Hill, 
and not, as local history says, in Montague village. In 
quite a different way arose the village streets in the older 
towns, where grants to proprietors preceded actual settle- 
ment. When Sunderland, for example, was planted, the 
proprietors, thirty-nine in number, laid out a broad street 
and plotted forty "home lots," twenty on either side, 
taking thirty-nine for themselves and reserving one for a 
minister. This seeming digression has a value for us on 
account of its relation to the common lands which were not 
finally disposed of in this town until forty or fifty years 
ago. Let us briefly review the situation. 

The grantees of a town like Sunderland were at first 



22 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

simply a land-owning community, or it may perhaps be 
better said, an ordinary eommerical corporation, organized 
for the purpose of assembling families, settling a minister 
and getting ready for the making of a town. Of course 
the families brought together were usually those of the 
proprietors. In this work they were under the parental 
guidance of the General Court, represented by a special 
committee, and when ready to receive the gift of political 
rights they obtained them by further action of the court. 
But these rights, when conferred, belonged to them, not 
as proprietors of the land, but as inhabitants of the place. 
The land-holding community and the political community 
were separate and distinct bodies, capable of dealing with 
third parties and with each other. If a new inhabitant 
was admitted he must buy or trade for his land as best 
he could. 

When, therefore, the thirty-nine proprietors in Sunder- 
land took possession of their home lots, all the remaining 
territory in the plantation, including all lands in present 
Montague, belonged to them as undivided or common 
lands. 

While these were the legal relations existing between 
proprietors and inhabitants, they were often lost sight of 
after a little, especially in slow growing towns, where the 
number of new comers was small; though in some of the 
older places there were contentions between the two 
interests, which became bitter in the extreme. Sometimes 
the demands of new inhabitants were satisfied by allowing 
them an undivided share in the common lands alone, 
again by setting off a specified tract in fee simple, with 
no further rights of division; and still again by admitting 
the new comer into full proprietary rights with the others, 
hus recognizing a sort of moral trust as to t he entire tract 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 23 

of common land in favor of all the later inhabitants. 
The divisions of the Sunderland lands were made among 
the proprietors on a basis of strict equality, except that a 
large tract, embracing nearly all of the Two Mile Addition, 
divided about 1730, was apportioned according to the 
assessors' valuation of those who participated in the 
division. This was probably because the grant was made 
to the town or its inhabitants in their corporate capacity. 
It is a curious fact that allotments in certain towns were 
often made out of common lands according to rank, social 
condition and property values of the proprietors, such di- 
vision being made by mutual agreement, thus showing 
that the Puritan fathers were not influenced by any vision- 
ary theories of equality. They had great respect for 
rank and official position. In Hadley a division was made 
on this principle, the wealthiest receiving about four times 
as much as the poorest; and yet we are told that "the 
equity of the division was never called in question." When 
Leverett was incorporated in 1774, the General Court ruth- 
lessly confiscated the Sunderland proprietors' rights by 
providing that all common lands lying in the territory 
cut off should belong to the inhabitants of the new town. 
In the Montague act no such provision was made, but 
Sunderland, at a later date, generously released to the 
inhabitants of Montague all rights in the common lands 
lying within our bounds. Montague sold them from time 
to time for the benefit of the town treasury. In connec- 
tion with the disposition of them, there appears, in 1772, 
one of the first recorded protests in our town against forc- 
ing the people to support the ministry. Moses Harvey 
and Nathaniel Gunn, Jr., the tavern keeper, in behalf of 
themselves and others who had embraced the Baptist 
faith, entered their protest in town meeting against appro- 



24 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

priating money rising from the sale of common lands 
towards repairing the meetinghouse. 

Thus we are brought back to the point from which we 
ought not, perhaps, to have departed — the meetinghouse. 
Obedient to the earliest recorded resolve, the inhabitants 
settled a preacher in 1752, in the person of Rev. Judah 
Nash, and the meetinghouse itself came into existence one 
or two years later. This house remained standing until 
1833, when it passed away, the last visible memorial of 
scenes amid which the church and town life were one. A 
plain, two-story structure, with a belfry at one end tower- 
ing above the gable, it stood north of the common, with 
side toward the road, on the site of Mr. Chenery's building, 
so long occupied by the post-office. There was an entrance 
at either end, one of them leading through the belfry, 
and another entrance in front, on the side next the street. 
To the right and left of this entrance led a passage way 
connecting with two flights of stairs which conducted to 
the gallery, both flights being against the front wall of 
the building. Opposite the main entrance, and against 
the rear wall, stood the pulpit, with deacons' seats railed 
off in front of it. From the pulpit to the easterly and 
westerly walls, and thence across these, save for the two 
end entrances, ran a row of square box pews, all of them 
adjacent to the walls. The body of the house, excepting 
the space taken by three aisles running at right angles to 
the pulpit side, was occupied by pews of the same de- 
scription. The gallery extended along the front side, op- 
posite the pulpit, and also across both ends. The win- 
dows you must fill in to suit your imagination. A town 
vote, in 1755, declares that there shall be six on the back 
side, two of them back of the pulpit. The pews were con- 
structed from time to time by individuals, under restric- 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 25 

tions imposed in town meeting. Four of the leading 
citizens were, in the same year, reimbursed for money ex- 
pended for rum, being no doubt, rum dispensed among the 
public at the "raising" of the meetinghouse. 

In 1757, that difficult and delicate task of seating the 
meetinghouse was entrusted to a committee of nine, di- 
vided into three sets or subcommittees. Each set was 
to seat the house by themselves in the first instance, and 
then compare notes, the committee as a whole to adjust 
the differences. We may imagine the fancied slights and 
heartburnings which the committee's work produced, how- 
ever wisely they acted; Mrs. Samuel Harvey, perhaps, 
complaining because she had been assigned a seat in- 
ferior to that given Mrs. Lieut. Clapp, and others mak- 
ing similar criticisms without end. Too poor to buy a bell, 
the people voted to hire Lieut. Clapp 's "conk" shell to 
be blown as a "sygnall on the Sabbath day," and it was 
afterwards purchased by the town for one pound and ten 
shillings. It exists to-day, a treasured relic, in the hands 
of Deacon Richard Clapp. 

Going back, in imagination, say one hundred and twenty 
years, to some bright Sunday morning in summer, we 
hear the deep, harsh blasts of the shell reverberating be- 
tween the hills. The villagers issue from their houses in 
proper order and walk with pace dignified and slow toward 
the house of worship, husband and wife taking the lead, 
the children closely following; the dwellers on the out- 
skirts jog along the thickly wooded way on horseback, a 
wife or daughter often seated on a pillion behind the rider; 
all coming in dutiful response to the same summons. Only 
as a deer, frightened by the approach, here and there 
capers into the thicket, the brush crackling under his feet, 
does aught occur to break the silence which prevails along 



26 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

the lonely road. Arrived at the meeting house, the women, 
decked out in such primitive finery as they possess, ex- 
change greetings and gossip while they await the coming 
of the minister. The Rev. Mr. Nash, a little belated (far 
he has allowed not quite time enough to compass his cir- 
cuitous route all the way from the Marsh house, opposite 
Lieut. Clapp's down Federal street, and across the south- 
erly swamp road), enters and ascends the pulpit, the con- 
gregation rising out of respect for his personal worth as 
well as for his high office, and lastly the boys, having quit 
their secret wrestling in the horse shed, scuffle up the 
stairs to their pews in the gallery. We will not follow 
the long service, nor take more than a passing notice of 
Mr. Judah Wright, the tything man, who perambulates 
the aisles, seeing that everybody is an attentive listener 
except himself. Carrying a staff, tipped at one end, per- 
haps with a squirrel's tail, he thrusts it in the face of a 
sleeping maiden; and with the other, capped with a deer's 
hoof, he silences some mischief making boy. The interest 
in this scene for us lies in the fact that here are the town 
and the church all in one. Gathered as church members 
to-day, the men may assemble in the same place as citi- 
zens and voters on the morrow. Communion table and 
moderator's desk — one and the same — what unity of needs 
and aspirations this fact implies! A people held together 
by bonds of mutual sympathy and sacrifice almost as 
strong as the ties of family affection. In 1758, it was 
"voted to make good the damage sustained by the Widow 
Pry son by the burning of her house," and also " to make 
good the damage sustained by the Widow Rose by the 

burying of a feather bed that died on of ye 

small pox." Puzzling questions of administration arising, 
these men solved them in their own practical way, creating, 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 27 

not following, precedents. Developing as a plucky, self- 
reliant, freedom loving people, they were quick to discern 
the necessity of organization to oppose the British oppres- 
sion and ready to contribute treasure and men when the 
conflict came. 

In April, 1773, the town chose its committee of corre- 
spondence, consisting of Moses Gunn, Elisha Allis, Stephen 
Tuttle, Judah Wright, Nathaniel Gunn, Jr., and Moses 
Harvey, and during the same month they sent to Boston 
a letter, which closed with the ringing declaration " that a 
criminal and scandalous inattention or indifference to our 
rights may be an infamy never justly charged upon us, es- 
teeming a tame submission to slavery more infamous than 
slavery itself." In the following July, the fourteenth day 
of the month was set apart, by vote of town meeting, as a 
day of religious observance. Boston harbor being closed, 
by command of the royal government, our townsmen 
pledged themselves to suspend all commercial intercourse 
with Great Britain, and to abstain from purchasing or 
consuming any British wares from and after August 1. 

The alarm from Lexington, where the first blood was 
shed, April 19, 1775, reached Northfield, and probably 
Montague also, on the following day. Provision for min- 
ute men had already been made as early as January of 
that year, and there is no occasion to doubt that a com- 
pany of Montague men answered the alarm by marching 
at once toward the scene of conflict. [We give the roll in 
a later chapter. — E. P. P.] 

Another company, under Capt. Robert Oliver, of Con- 
way, who marched, as their muster roll explains, "to the 
releef of the Country, April 22nd, 1775," included nineteen 
Montague men. 

Every year during the progress of the war our citizens 



28 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

exerted themselves to the utmost in supplying men, cloth- 
ing and provisions. In 1781, the bounty given by the 
town for one year of volunteer service was twenty yearling 
heifers. The list of Montague men who served in the 
war, exclusive of the minute men, numbers more than one 
hundred and sixty. Time's relentless scythe has spared 
until to-day but few own sons and daughters of the Revo- 
lution; and so it is a notable circumstance that there 
resides with us now a son of one who served in the army 
of Washington. A third son, Joel, passed away only two 
years ago, but the genial presence of Henry Shepard and 
of his brother Frank, still abides. May they continue in 
health and happiness for many years to come. 

In 1790 Montague had one hundred and fifty houses 
and a population of nine hundred. We need not follow 
the statistics through the decades, but they are such as 
to show a steady and healthy growth down to the time 
which marked the beginning of decadence in country 
towns. Including Turners Falls, the first drop, I believe 
which the census volumes show, has occurred in the five 
years just closed. The inhabitants numbering 6,054, as 
against 6,296 in 1890. 

Of Montague's industries I had proposed to speak 
briefly, but time passes, and the subject must be left for 
special treatment on another occasion. The manufacture 
of scythe snaths, wagons, hats, chairs, furniture, rakes 
and wallets, has at one time or another given to village 
life that diversified, healthful and interesting character 
so well known and appreciated in Massachusetts during the 
past two or three generations. If you must inquire some- 
thing about the very beginnings, time may be taken to 
say that the first mill in this region was, in all probability, 
on or near the site of the present Billings mill near North 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 29 

Leverett. It was already there when the committee for 
Swampfield in 1716 granted to Benjamin Munn and others 
the privileges of taking lumber on "Saw Mill Brook," they 
to sell "bords" to the inhabitants for twenty shillings 
per thousand. The grant was not to be allowed to inter- 
fere with the erection of a corn mill near by. Lying half 
buried in the bed of the river, just above the Billings mill, 
is to be seen to-day an old millstone, worn by the rush of 
waters almost beyond recognition. This stone, a relic 
of the corn mill referred to, is probably the oldest mark in 
existence of the hand of civilized man in Montague. 

The old taverns and roads are worthy of special treat- 
ment, but time fails me now. I have here a tracing of a 
map of the town, made by Elisha Root in 1794, showing 
the main roads, the ferries, mills and taverns. Three 
corn mills, seven saw mills and one fulling mill are shown, 
the latter on or near the site of Col. Lawrence's, that 
many of you remember. Four taverns appear, with these 
locations: Gunn's (already mentioned), Kinsley's, on the 
west side of Main street in the village, where Mr. Martin 
afterwards kept; Severance's on the east side of Federal 
street, a little south of Dry Hill road, and Taft's (after- 
wards Durkee's), nearly a mile south of the mouth of 
Miller's river on the Northfield road. Was Martin Root's 
tavern, then, in 1794, abandoned? It is not shown on 
the map. The old sign, dated 1785, now in the Memorial 
hall at Deerfield, used to swing from the original Joseph 
Root house, already mentioned, and it is supposed to have 
invited the weary traveller to a good dinner and a plentiful 
supply of "flip" and new rum until a much later date. 
Martin was but thirty-two years old in 1785, and died in 
1833. 

The present hotel in the village was built by Col. Aretas 



30 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Ferry, about 1830. Col. Ferry is well remembered as the 
shrewd, affable Yankee store-keeper, who, boasting one 
day of his accomplishments in the trade, said that he could 
" do up " a pound of tea in a smaller bundle than any other 
man in the country. "Yes," quickly answered a custo- 
mer, " and you can put a pint of rum in a smaller bottle! " 
Let us now look, for a moment at the history of our 
schools. Prior to 1757 there was no regular schoolhouse, 
but each committee was expected to provide a suitable 
place. In that year it was voted to build a house, six- 
teen by eighteen feet, of hewed or sawed logs, and to put 
it by Ensign King's barn, near the Mill swamp, a site in 
the vicinity of the Amos Rugg place. The vote provided 
that during the winter the school be kept " in Joseph Root's 
corn house;" but this seems to have provoked serious 
opposition, for at a later meeting in the same month, the 
town declared that the school should be at the house of 
Widow Smith, till the committee could provide a more 
suitable place. In the winter of 1758, the record shows 
a vote to provide the "stuff" for the schoolhouse which it 
was "in order to build next spring." This is what you 
taxpayers have to do on occasion at the present day; but 
the "stuff" contemplated in the old vote may have been 
the material for the house rather than the funds with 
which to supply them. The town appears not to have 
built the proposed house, but to have bought from John 
Scott, in 1759, a dwelling house, which was put to school 
uses. Its location is not known. This building the town 
voted, in 1762, to move to the south of John Gunn's land. 
It appears to have been burned during that year, for, in a 
petition to the General Court by the towns of Sunderland 
and Montague, in May, 1763, asking for the remission of a 
fine of ten pounds laid upon them for not sending a repre- 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 31 

sentative the previous year, the excuse alleged was that 
their numbers were small and their public charges large, 
"besides which, they had had the misfortune to have two 
schoolhouses consumed by fire." The petition was 
granted. 

About forty years ago the workers on the highway dug 
up, near the present fence on the easterly side of the com- 
mon, and midway between the brick church and Mrs. 
Hollis Chenery's, some brick which mark the location of 
what those now living remember as the "old schoolhouse." 
Either this building, or its immediate predecessor, was 
built in 1766. The town vote provided for a building 
eighteen by seventeen, and directed that it be placed 
next to Deacon Gunn's fence, about eleven rods south- 
easterly of the meetinghouse. Measuring from where the 
meetinghouse then stood, you will reach the site just de- 
scribed. Mrs. Louisa Root (born Rowe), whose memory 
well preserved, goes back to about 1816, attended school 
there, the first teacher whom she remembers being Mr., 
afterwards Rev., Durfee. The house was moved to the 
westerly side of Main street, to a lot lying between Joseph 
Clapp's and Henry Morse's house, where it stood till 1842. 
Abandoned in that year, it was separated into halves 
and sold, one of which halves stands to-day down the 
"Lane," incorporated into the house occupied by Everett 
Scott. 

Prior to the division of the town into school districts 
the winter school was kept at the Centre, but in order to 
satisfy the demands of different localities, the summer 
term was shifted from place to place. 

To Asahel Gunn's wife is due the honor of being the 
first teacher mentioned in the records, the entry being in 
1755. Joseph Root, Moses Gunn, Jr., and Aaron Esta- 



32 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

brooke were among her successors, they receiving from 
thirty to forty shillings a month for their services. 

In 1764 every person was ordered to send wood to the 
schoolhouse and pile it where the master should direct, 
neglecting which his children should be sent home. This 
primitive custom continued well into the present century. 
What penalty was imposed, do you ask, for not complying 
with this regulation? None at all, except the restraints 
of public sentiment, for any one who refused to send his 
share of wood was considered as exhibiting the extremity 
of meanness. A former inhabitant of Federal street, re- 
fusing to do so on the ground that the school was not in 
the center of the district, the older ones at the school would 
not let his boys come near the fire. 

Crude, indeed, must have been the schools kept here 
down to, and even later than 1800 — deficient in appeal to 
the reasoning faculties, in sentiment, and often in refine- 
ment; deficient, in fact, in pretty much everything except 
earnestness and high moral purpose on the part of the 
teacher; and but scanty funds were furnished for their sup- 
port. But in proportion to the resources of the time, the 
little that was done bears testimony as creditable to the 
fathers as that which the liberal appropriations to-day 
bears to the sons. From the day when a majority de- 
manded better accommodations than could be afforded by 
Joseph Root's cornhouse, the tendency has been ever up- 
ward, until now, when whatever is asked for is cheerfully 
given. 

The "little red schoolhouse" you hold in affectionate 
remembrance, not only as a symbol of the importance 
attached to education in American life, but as a reminder 
of what the common school has done for New England 
character. We hear much about improvements in educa- 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 33 

tional methods, and speak of the advances made during 
the past and present generations. They have, indeed, been 
substantial; but in one respect, perhaps, there has been a 
loss. The new system, following the tendency everywhere 
manifest to aggregation, combination and operations con- 
ducted upon a large scale, is inevitable — at least in the 
more populous towns. In no other way can the large 
numbers of pupils be taught with due regard to economy. 
Grading, classification, and, to a certain extent, instruc- 
tion in different branches by teachers assigned to them 
alone, become a necessity as a matter of mere administra- 
tion. By these changes the quality of instruction has been 
vastly improved, and pupils have in many ways received 
a better education than that obtained in the district. But 
these schools possessed, at least, one virtue which should 
be carefully noted when the old ideals are sought to be 
replaced by the new. The centralized school of to-day 
turns out children with larger and more diversified attain- 
ments; its graduates have fivefold the knowledge of history, 
geography and natural science that one obtained at school 
half a century ago; but it is to be feared that they are 
more in need of praying that their knowledge may ripen 
into wisdom. Less in mental and moral contact with 
an individual teacher, and held throughout the course in 
the iron vice of a system designed for ordinary and usual 
needs common to all scholars, they leave school with 
corners well rounded and special aptitudes undeveloped, 
better average graduates ; but has the school-trained youth 
of to-day, to the same degree as of old, the elements in 
him of the strong, self-reliant man, one on whom may 
worthily fall the mantle of his father as a public-spirited 
citizen, devoted to the welfare of the town and state? If 
not, let us see to it that, so far as public instruction is con- 



34 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

cerned, no blame can be laid to its door. The direct* 
constant presence in the olden times of a single master or 
dame, exercising the moral influence of his or her individual 
mind and studying, as occasion offered, the characteristics 
of each pupil, impressed the mind and moulded character 
in a manner never to be equalled by methods, apart from 
personality. The good, strong men and women, many of 
them natives of this town, who so instructed our youths 
in the days of district and select schools, would make a 
noble list; and there lives to-day in your memory some to 
whom you owe a debt of deepest gratitude. 

The subject of Montague's schools should not be dis- 
missed without mention of the valuable and devoted serv- 
ice given in their behalf for more than a quarter of a 
century by one who is here to-day. His modesty appeals 
for the suppression of his name, but in obedience to the 
higher demands of the historical record I shall give it. 
Your recent school reports show that, under the present 
committee, of which he continues chairman in virtue of 
his capacity and experience, the ever present and legiti- 
mate demand for advance and innovation shall never be 
allowed to make of the elementary school anything else 
than training grounds, where the mind and heart may be 
put to the development of what is highest and noblest in 
them. If there be any short cut to the honest acquisition 
of a fortune, or if people shall persist in placing riches 
above character, instruction in the means to be employed 
must be sought after school life has ended, and against 
the influence of its counsels. May the schools of Monta- 
gue always have the guiding hand of so devoted a friend 
as Seymour Rockwell. 

An institution that occupied a conspicuous place in this 
town from 1835 to late in the "fifties," was the village de- 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 35 

bating club, or lyceum, which did much to furnish whole- 
some amusement, and to quicken intellectual activity. 
Though common to many towns, this kind of an organ- 
ization probably never received a more generous support, 
or produced better results, in any place having as small 
a population. In the winter of 1834-35, Samuel Bardwell, 
his brother Warren, Erastus P. Gunn, Moses Root and 
Elihu Gunn met and organized, the first named being 
chosen president. Others immediately joined; and that 
perennial question, whether capital punishment should 
be abolished, received its first public discussion in this 
town, Erastus and Elihu Gunn leading the debate. Many 
times during the existence of the society its members, 
young and old, wrestled with the same question, and once, 
if we may believe Mr. Gustavus Bissell, with disastrous 
results. Samuel Bardwell, having undertaken to demon- 
strate the futility and barbarity of this method of punish- 
ment, Mr. Bissell retorted that the speaker, with strange 
inconsistency, had hung himself, and that he need do 
nothing further — by way of reply to his opponent — than 
to let him swing! 

In changing hands the lyceum flourished until near the 
outbreak of the war. During a greater part of the time, 
it should be remembered, the active participants were 
mature members of the community, as well as young men 
not yet beyond the "select" school. The ministers, Mer- 
rill, Bradford and Elder Andrews, will be remembered as 
among the leaders; and also those gifted school-teachers, 
Cephas Brigham and Charles A. Richardson. In the 
later days, John and Seymour Rockwell, H. B. Gunn and 
Emery P. Andrews may be mentioned as among those 
who worthily maintained the spirit and work of the insti- 
tution. A regular feature with which you associate the 



36 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

pleasantest recollections was a manuscript newspaper, 
strongly flavored with wit, and unsparing in criticisms 
of local abuses or personal foibles. Of the graduates of 
this training school, himself a Montague boy, fostered in 
her district schools, is one whose name is high on the honor 
roll of public service in an adjoining state. Hon. Charles 
B. Andrews, justice of the supreme court of Connecticut, 
formerly governor of the same state, achieved his first 
triumph by becoming a leader on the floor of the Connecti- 
cut house of representatives, where he exhibited with com- 
manding influence those intellectual gifts — a ready wit 
and incisive logic — which were exercised and developed 
here in the gymnastics of local debate. 

The "B. D. C." (Blys' Debating Club) composed ex- 
clusively of boys in the high school, and maintained for 
several years between 1870 and 1880, deserves recognition 
as among our past educational influences, but time for- 
bids more than a passing mention of it. Rev. William 
Dugan, Edgar Bartlett, Merritt Holton, Francis A. Rugg, 
Frank Desmond and R. P. Clapp were of the leading mem- 
bers. 

Some incidents of a political nature, occurring during the 
anti-slavery agitation, may be recorded before passing 
out of memory. In 1840, when the rallying cry of the 
Whigs was "Protection," there was held here, in the 
interest of their party, a mass meeting to which delega- 
tions came from the surrounding towns. "Uncle" Avery 
Clapp, as a suggestion for their consideration, posted on 
the fence opposite the old town hall, a picture drawn by 
himself, representing some negro slaves writhing under the 
lash of their master, and printed in bold letters underneath 
the picture, the word "Protection!" An attendant at the 
meeting tells me to-day that no speech on that occasion 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 37 

so much impressed him or influenced his future political 
action, as the mute appeal of that picture. He became at 
once an earnest advocate of abolition. In 1844, Montague 
cast three votes for James G. Birney, the presidential can- 
didate of the Liberty party, by the hands, I am told, of 
Elijah Gunn, Joshua Marsh, Jr., and Samuel D. Bard- 
well. In 1848, the Free Soilers held the balance of power 
in town; and after the regular November meeting, which 
resulted in no election, succeeded in sending their candi- 
date, Joseph Clapp, to the legislature. Alpheus Moore, 
also of that party, was elected the following year and held 
the office two years successively. A joint debate in the 
town hall, between Mr. Moore and Sanford Goddard, on 
the principles of the Free Soil party, will be recalled as an 
important local event in 1848, the former championing 
the new cause. The question was decided by the audience 
on the merits of the debate, overwhelmingly in his favor. 
In the debates of this period, which occurred among the 
attendants at village stores, feeling sometimes ran high. 
Joshua Marsh and Kendall Abbott were the most out- 
spoken of those declaring for immediate emancipation. 
Finding himself hard pressed in an argument with one 
of them, Dr. Shepard exclaimed, in a burst of sarcasm, 
"Well, when the Lord sees fit to liberate the slaves, he 
will do so without calling on Josh. Marsh or Kendall 
Abbott!" 

As this sketch does not profess completeness, it cannot 
deal with the old military companies, the "Floodwoods" 
and their successors, the "Franklin Guards," the latter 
under the command of Thomas Lord, the popular land- 
lord, of splendid physique, fine address and pleasing man- 
ners. Nor can we more than mention the annual training 
day in May, when the "Guards" successively under the 



38 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

captaincy of Mr. Lord, Calvin Hunter, Carver Clary and 
Lucien H. Stone displayed their skill in manoeuvres; the 
official programme followed always by an impromptu game 
of round ball, a bout of good-natured wrestling among the 
boys, including sometimes the schoolmaster, and finally 
a knock-down fight between rival toughs, to decide some 
long-mooted question of superiority. The days of rough 
practical joking were ended by the founding and develop- 
ment of the library. To Miss Bailey was due great credit 
for her successful work in introducing this auxiliary educa- 
tional factor, which has done a vast deal in this village by 
supplanting rusticity, coarseness and vulgarity with refine- 
ment and taste. 

A notable figure in Montague's earlier days was Dr. 
Henry Wells, who came here from Brattleboro in 1781. 
A gentleman "of the old school," he was noted for his 
high character and public spirit. His reputation as a 
physician was such as to make his services in demand 
throughout a much wider area than this town or county. 
The memory of his useful life is cherished by his descend- 
ants, the Rowes, who are of our inhabitants to-day. 

Jonathan Hartwell, the first lawyer in Montague, al- 
though not a man of brilliant parts, was a man of strong 
common sense and sterling worth. He was postmaster 
for, I think, nearly forty years, and represented the town 
in the legislature year after year. 

Among those from Montague who have sat in the State 
senate, may be mentioned Elder Erastus Andrews, San- 
ford Goddard, J. H. Root and Joseph F. Bartlett. Clapp 
Wells is well remembered as a high sheriff in the county, 
and the latest of Montague's citizens to serve in this 
capacity, keeping faithful guard over the criminals which 
other towns furnish, is Isaac Chenery. 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 39 

When Mrs. Andrews was laid to rest from this village 
a few years since, a last tribute of filial affection was paid 
by a galaxy of sons of whom any mother or town might 
be proud. One of these has already been mentioned. His 
brother E. Benjamin Andrews, president of Brown Uni- 
versity, has achieved a no less distinguished career. 

Montague's record in the Civil War is creditable indeed. 
By the close of 1862 the town had paid $4,500 in bounties 
to forty-five volunteers. We were ahead of our quota for 
the first two years, and also at the end of the war. The 
total number of soldiers furnished was nearly one hundred 
and fifty, out of whom twenty-three lost their lives in the 
service. The spark of military genius was touched, not 
in a son of Montague, but in one born in the older town 
down the valley. As the graves, however, of those twenty- 
three fallen heroes, and of their comrades who have since 
joined them, are decorated here from year to year by 
the slowly diminishing band of veterans, the memory of 
their sacrifices just as worthily touches the cords of grati- 
tude in your hearts, and renews the fountains of feeling 
which impel to unselfish deeds, as the brighter fame of 
that gifted commander whose courage and devotion to 
country were lately honored in the town of Hadley, Gen- 
eral Joseph Hooker. 

This community mourns to-day the loss of two of her 
prominent and honored citizens — Thaxter Shaw and R. N. 
Oakman. Neither was a native of Montague, but both 
were long identified with her interests. Mr. Shaw settled 
here in 1861. Mr. Oakman came in 1846. Beginning in 
that year he served our schools either as teacher or com- 
mitteeman for nineteen years, and his labors in behalf of 
the town's interests were given as a member of the board 
of selectmen for more than twenty-five years. His life, 



40 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

spared until a ripe old age, was filled with public service 
well performed. 

It has been customary to close an address of this kind 
by a worshipful appeal to the work and character of the 
fathers as ideals ever to be followed, confidently predict- 
ing that fidelity to their example will enable the present 
and succeeding generations in some way to solve every 
problem, which, under new social and industrial conditions, 
may arise; but the judicial and philosophical spirit, which 
has only lately characterized study of the founders of New 
England, compels us to admit the fact that along with 
recognition of their virtues, must go condemnation of 
grave faults. The argument by historians of generally 
accepted authority that the Puritans acted wisely accord- 
ing to the standard and light of their time, cannot be 
accepted as an excuse for bigotry and persecution; and the 
reasoning will some day come to be regarded (if it is not 
already) as a species of special pleading or sophistry which 
must be condemned none the less because it has sprung 
from generous sentiments of loyalty and filial affection. 

On a panel set in one of the gateways at the World's 
Fair was written: "Toleration in Religion the best fruit 
of the last 400 years." Was the sentiment prematurely 
declared? Toleration has not, indeed, been fully realized, 
but the world moves; and the principle of freedom of con- 
science, coupled with absolute equality before the law, 
which Massachusetts once allowed to pass from her bor- 
ders to be established in Baptist Rhode Island and Catho- 
lic Maryland, is now too firmly rooted here to be over- 
thrown by any society or class of men. 

As illustrating the progress we have made in this town 
in the best fruit of civilization, reference may properly be 
made to an event which occurred here more than fifty 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 41 

years ago. The participators are gone, and from their 
children, also, the old animosities have passed completely 
away. The event should be forgotten but for the lesson 
it teaches. Public feeling was not more highly excited 
in 1861 than it was in 1833, when the old meetinghouse 
ceased to be. So great was the bitterness manifested by 
the respective parties with regard to possession of the 
church property, that the conservatives, in order to make 
sure that it would never fall into the hands of the radicals, 
turned out one day with axes and crowbars, and, under 
the lead of one of the deacons, razed the house to the 
ground. These times are past and we to-day rejoice in 
the union of Christian friendship and charity. But om 
duty to education and to the State will not have been per- 
formed, unless we allow to others what we demand for 
ourselves — absolute freedom of conscience — and proscribe 
no man of whatever race or creed for his opinions so long 
as he is a loyal citizen of the republic. 

The State demands of her sons to-day broader views and 
sympathies, and a greater degree of moral courage than 
in the old days when the communities which formed towns 
and commonwealth were a homogeneous people possessing 
practically the same needs and desires; and it may be said 
that the highest type of patriotism partaking less and less 
of the instinct of self-preservation, is a nobler and more 
unselfish sentiment to-day than ever before in our history. 

Along the banks of the abandoned canal this side of 
Turners Falls the delicate forget-me-nots silently appeal 
for some recognition of the old boating days on the river, 
when barges laden with West India goods and manufac- 
tured articles were pulled up the river by the rum-soaked 
boatmen; leaving Montague's supplies at Bardwell's Land- 
ing, and taking thence on the return her produce to market. 



42 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

The traffic through the canal and the busy handling of 
merchandise at Adams Landing were such as to justify 
for the locality choice of the name which now seems only 
an ironical designation — Montague City. The recent run 
by a young man on his bicycle from Brooklyn, N. Y., to 
his home in Turners Falls, 197 miles, within twenty hours, 
was a notable feat, but not more notable than a task often 
performed by Joseph Day, back in the "twenties," when 
he used to walk from Montague to Hartford, more than 
fifty miles, between sunrise and sunset, so as to be ready 
to start back with a boat on the following morning. The 
railroad, opened through to Boston in 1848, marked the 
closing days of the old epoch. The modern era of fierce in- 
dustrial competition then began. This competition grow- 
ing sharper and sharper with the perfection of travelling 
facilities and mechanical inventions, no one knows how 
it will end. 

The drift of rural population to the towns and the mi- 
gration of both people and industry from towns to cities 
have seemed to subject the country districts to decay; but 
a loss in population means not necessarily a loss in the 
elements of political strength and purity. The rising 
tide of surplus population in the cities, making municipal 
government more difficult and aggravating the dangers 
of poverty and crime, must, it would seem, turn back to- 
ward the country. Something in the way of an additional 
countervailing influence may be expected from the extend- 
ing of improvements, the electric railway among others, 
which will make it easier to live in the country and be in 
communication with the larger centers of trade and in- 
dustry. 

It becomes, therefore, the duty of the farmers and trades- 
men to work together in a spirit of liberality for the intro- 



BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY 43 

duct ion of improvements. Whatever makes the village 
more attractive, more comfortable as a place of residence — 
better roads, better lighted streets, a good water supply — 
should be welcomed, to the end that there may be brought 
to the side of the farmer and villager something of the 
attractions which now entice people away. Here are the 
wellsprings of a pure, peaceful life on the native heath, 
amid influences which mould and develop character. 

Though the functions of the State will be more and 
more extended, the institution of private property will 
not be abandoned, the stimulus to individual effort and 
ambition which that alone can give will remain, and there 
will be no other means of individual progress than hard, 
self-reliant toil. At this point, we may well go back for 
inspiration to the labors and sacrifices of the fathers, re- 
membering with Stevenson, that however many hilltops 
we may reach in life, the El Dorado lies always beyond; 
that "it is a better thing to travel hopefully than to arrive, 
and that the true success is to labor." 




Book III+ The First Inhabitants 

BIRD TRACK RECORDS 

DLINY MOODY, a farm boy of South Hadley, in 
■■- 1802, plowed up a layer of sandstone containing as it 
seemed the footprints of some great bird. He took them 
to Dr. Dwight. The doctors were the scientists of those 
days. In the doctor's office where they lay for some 
time a few people noticed them. They were called the 
" tracks of Noah's raven." Everything ancient was re- 
ferred to some Biblical period in those days. The matter 
was soon forgotten. 

In 1835, flagstones were quarried along the Connecticut 
river in Montague and North Sunderland. Dexter Marsh, 
a native of Montague, whose work it was to lay the flags 
for a sidewalk on Clay hill, Greenfield, was fancy-struck 
by curious marks recurring again and again. He began 
to form a theory about them. When he came upon a 
stone with such marks, he laid it aside. And so he made 
quite a collection. He told Dr. James Dean about them. 
The doctor was well-read in science, while Marsh had 
been too poor as a boy to get a common school education. 
Dean agreed that they were "bird tracks." But how they 
could be, Dean knew no more than did Dexter Marsh. 
Science was up against a brand-new fact in nature, hitherto 
undreamed of. William Wilson, the sidewalk contractor, 
to whom Marsh had first broached his discovery called 
them "turkey tracks," and let it go at that. But Dr. 
Dean dispatched a message to Professor Hitchcock, the 



BOOK III. THE FIRST INHABITANTS 45 

geologist of Amherst College. Hitchcock replied, saying 
that they could not be bird tracks, as there was no animal 
life on the earth when those rocks were formed. Dr. 
Dean knew that Professor Hitchcock was wrong; that 
Marsh was right; that in spite of theories these were 
unmistakably some kind of footprints in the solid rock. 
So he made a cast of some of the tracks and sent it to 
Amherst. Upon receiving that, Professor Hitchcock lost 
no time in getting up to Dexter Marsh's house and rock- 
pile. He was doubtless all a tremble, knowing that all 
theories of the antiquity of life on the earth were about to 
be upset. He was convinced that these were the tracks 
of some three-toed bird. But he was partly mistaken. 

Dr. Dean kept thinking about the tracks and writing 
down his observations. Dexter Marsh kept hammering 
away at the Connecticut river ledges from Vermont to 
Connecticut whenever he had a holiday; and said noth- 
ing. Little, Brown & Co. of Boston in 1861 published 
posthumously Dean's handsomely illustrated work, Ichno- 
graphs from the Sandstone of the Connecticut Valley, in 
which he modified his first conclusion that they were bird 
tracks. Dexter Marsh collected the most valuable lot of 
the tracks ever gathered, and for years it formed one of 
the two principal entertainments for strangers visiting 
Greenfield. 

Professor Hitchcock kept thinking and observing too. 
Whenever there was an auction in the valley, he would 
induce the auctioneer to put up the door rock of any old 
place, last, to the highest bidder. People tapped their 
foreheads, for they thought him crazy. But he always 
got the door rock. In this way he got a lot of ready- 
quarried "bird tracks," in his own way, as Dexter Marsh 
had in his more laborious way. The professor, having 



46 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

carted off his door rock, would pry its layers apart and 
many times would be rewarded with a harvest of the 
coveted "ichnographs." In 1858 he published his book 
on Ichnology, or the science of bird track records. Be- 
sides his published works he left a collection of 20,000 
tracks to Amherst College and another lot to Yale. He 
studied the subject closely for twenty-three years. He 
described 119 species of animals that had left tracks in 
the rocks of our valley. They include birds, lizards, 
fishes and insects. 

There are all sizes of tracks and those of both three- 
and five-toed creatures. The largest ones (some twenty 
inches long, and generally three toed), were for years the 
greatest puzzle. Professor Hitchcock at first produced 
an imaginary giant bird of primitive type, to own the 
great tracks; but afterward wavered in favor of a lizard 
theory. The monster itself was, however, finally caught 
long after Professor Hitchcock was dead. That is, they 
found in the 60's at the Watershops in Springfield a com- 
plete skeleton, when they were blasting for the foundations 
of an armory gun. The skeleton now rests in the museum 
at Amherst. It is now called dinosaur. Professor Hitch- 
cock's last thought was right. It was a monster lizard. 
Since then many specimens, of two species of dinosaur, a 
flesh-eating and a plant-eating species, have been found 
in Wyoming and Montana. The best collection is in the 
American Museum, New York City. 

These "dragons of the prime" were, in the earlier age, 
twenty feet from head to tail. They would give anyone 
a scare to meet them in the gloaming; for to increase 
their natural hideousness they had the habit of walking 
on their long hind legs (seven feet long). In the latter 
part of the age the creatures were forty -five feet from tip 



BOOK III. THE FIRST INHABITANTS 47 

to tip. Their cruel reptile heads armed with immense 
saw-like teeth, and forearmed with sharp curved claws, 
crouched forward on bodies tons in weight like leaning 
towers twice the height of a man, wriggling through the 
marshes. Behind them like a flanking army trailed an 
immeasurable slimy tail which they raised at will from 
the earth like a threshing flail or a besom to sweep the 
prey before them. They had a coat of mail, probably 
impenetrable. They were capable of rapid onslaughts and 
even of leaping like frogs, landing like the swash of a tidal 
wave. 

The area inhabited by the "dragons" was 10x100 
miles along the Connecticut from Turners Falls to Middle- 
town. They are found by their tracks in the fine sand- 
stone of the Trias age, showing the inconceivably distant 
time in which they lived. Briefly stated, since these 
animals lived here there have passed a long succession 
of ages: the reptilian period, of reptiles with shapes like 
these monsters but with legs turned to fins for swimming 
in the deep, and with wings like bats for soaring in the air, 
twenty feet in spread; reptiles everywhere, for untold 
thousands of years, in earth and sky and sea; then the 
Tertiary ages, the threshold of the modern world, when 
the earth swarmed with animals that gave suck to their 
young, the halfway horse as big as dogs and foxes, mon- 
keys in the shape of men and multitudes of forms that 
flourished for millenniums together; and lost the game of 
life ; and faded away ages before man emerged ; then scores 
of thousands of years from the dim beginnings of humanity 
till now. All these things have come and gone since the 
dragon dinosaur left his "footprints on the sands of time" 
along the Montague shore. 

Our valley was still a mammoth canebrake, a fluvial 



48 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

swamp or oozy estuary of the distant sea. It was after 
the coal period. Some of our beautiful friends lurked in 
the canes and rushes, others in the caves of the woods and 
roamed for prey along the muddy shore. From the rec- 
ord in the rock we can read many things but not all of 
that far-off life. Full of stirring tragedy it must have 
been at times; but in its usual mood sluggish no doubt, 
the snoring forms waking only at evening to satisfy the 
pangs of hunger, all nature dreaming the first dreams of 
a mighty life, waiting for mind and personality to rise 
from the ooze and stare at the sky. There were bird 
forms and reptile in our valley, tortoise, frog, insect, fish 
and worm in myriad species. Besides the monster dino- 
saur there was the five-toed otozoum whose foot tracks 
are ten inches in length. There are marks of plants in 
the rock; one with a slender stem like a water lily, but 
with a top like a head of wheat. A flower has been found 
resembling the little pasture bluet. Distinct impressions 
of ferns and leaves of various plants and marks of insect 
larvse are found; and even spatter of raindrops on the sun- 
baked beach now turned to stone and sealed for ages. 

But while these cruel dreaming monsters were the lords 
of the valley, there came into existence in other places, 
and perhaps here, a little animal, the first whose young 
was born alive, not hatched from an egg. They call it 
microlestes, sometimes kangaroo rat. Anyhow it was the 
greatest fact the world had seen up to that time. For it 
suckled and cared for its young, showed in some degree 
the vicarious principle of suffering and doing for other 
than self, and so was the forerunner of man. And because 
it was a higher order of life, hopping about in the uplands 
and taking notice of something a little more than a din- 
ner, it survived when the earth rose from the waters and 



BOOK III. THE FIRST INHABITANTS 49 

covered herself with blossoms. It survived the saurian, 
not because it fought well, but because it sought more 
intelligently its food, evading useless battle and because 
that part of creation to which it belonged had reached a 
degree of life in which was mutual forbearance, mutual 
aid. How true to the remotest age are the words: "the 
meek shall inherit the earth." The war-like creatures 
fought well and the war-like nations of old have spilled 
their blood like the dragon and faded from the world. 
Those who have learned to live by mutual aid have lived. 
In the very depths of the rock then we find inscribed the 
truth of the Golden Rule. 




Book IV-+- The Indians 

THE Indian history of Montague is not one of bloody 
battles. Yet the Indian lived here in great numbers 
and left his names on our islands and meadows and moun- 
tains. The first settlers were experienced Indian fighters 
from the older towns and had men out in the Indian wars 
after they came here; but the tide of battle rolled up to 
our borders time and again and turned aside. I intend 
therefore in this book to describe more the personality of 
the Indian, inhabiting again his old homes with us and 
praying to his gods and planting the meadows. 

The Falls fight, the most stirring incident in King 
Philip's war, occurred on our border. We have the names 
of the last Indian proprietors of the town, of the Indian 
"Queen" Mashalisk, who at one time lived in Montague, 
of her son Wattawolunksin, the last of the Pocumtucks, 
who ended his career in revels in his long house on the 
island of Mattampash below the mouth of Sawmill 
river. We have the deed of his lands after his death. 
The "Long River" Quinetuk retains its Indian name as 
does one little brook, the Papacomtuckquash and the 
Pequoig, which has taken the name of Miller's river. We 
have the Indian names of all the islands in the Quinetuk 
along our shore and their Indian villages and those on the 
meadows adjacent; but cannot definitely locate them all. 
We know the name of Mt. Toby, the most prominent 
feature in our landscape, and some fragments of Indian 
nursery lore about it. Indian relics found in all parts of 
the town furnish us further records from which to piece 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 51 

up the local story. In these dim but sufficient records we 
read of midnight battles between the local Indians and 
the Mohawks. We know further the locations of their 
principal warpaths, villages and burying grounds. We 
know their intellectual endowments, their industries and 
their dreams. Some of the things I am going to tell have 
never been written down before. The rest is pieced up 
from a hundred fragmentary records bearing upon the 
questions, "Who was the red man, who had villages and 
fields of corn all up and down our Montague meadows and 
back amongst the hills? " And, "How did he take life, on 
the whole, apart from his battles?" I want to show how 
the peaceful side of the Indian, as we have him in Monta- 
gue, to think about, is even more interesting and romantic 
than that bloody side of him, scalping the early inhabitants 
of Deerfield. 

Sylvester Judd of Hadley has given us the most home- 
like glimpse of any of the valley Indians. George Sheldon 
of Deerfield has contributed richly many details. The 
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association has gathered in 
many priceless fragments of perishing lore. But the In- 
dian's mind is revealed to us in a considerable body of 
legends of the Abenakis of Maine, to whom our Indians 
were closely related, as well as to those Indians of East- 
ern Canada who have left us those marvelous tales of 
Glooskap, the Indian Christ-Hero; while Alice Fletcher 
has revealed to us the very heart of the red man. We 
know well in these days, that, given leisure, the Indian is 
one of the greatest of craftsmen. The ancient New Eng" 
land writers never did justice to the "heathen salvage" as 
they called him. There were no epithets too devilish- 
sounding to call him when they were at war, and the white 
man acting far more cruelly (according to his Christian 



52 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

lights) than the red man. They only saw in him the lurk- 
ing demon and because they failed to make of him a Pur- 
itan they discounted everything that was naturally inter- 
esting in him. There were two slight exceptions to this 
rule, the interest John Eliot took in the language of the 
Nipmucks of Central Massachusetts, and that which John 
Sargeant took in the native character of the Mohegans of 
Stockbridge, and their national tradition. I propose in 
this book to overlook for the most part the devil that 
lurked in the Indian (which has been worked overtime by 
most older writers) and speak of that half of him which 
was a sweet and interesting child. 

On the island of Mattampash, doubtless below the 
mouth of Sawmill river, in 1671, lived and died the young 
Indian chief Wattawolunksin, the last of the Pocumtucks. 
He was a great landlord, to speak in white men's terms, 
which never applied to Indian lands or lordships. The 
Indians held their lands in common. The Indian deeds 
so called were legal titles only in the understanding of 
the white men. The Indian sachems had no legal power 
from the red man's view point permanently to dispose 
of the tribal lands. The Indian knew no such custom. 
The deed was binding only during the sachem's lifetime 
or term of office. But Wattawolunksin represented the 
ownership of all the land of Deerfield east of the moun- 
tains and an indefinite part of Montague and Sunderland, 
and all the islands in the river. Quinetuk, like the waters 
of Babylon, flowed through the midst of his kingdom, 
giving a royal highway for his canoe fleets for war and 
trade and social life, from Canada to the Sound. The 
meadows on either side of his island capital were rich with 
corn, and beans and squashes in summer; and shad and 
salmon in myriad shoals crowded in spring, by his very 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 53 

door. Life for the most part was one long sweet dream. 
When no war cloud hung over Kunckwadchu, this was 
paradise. Then it was, the old Indian believed, that 
Glooskap was about to return to his own. But I must 
first tell the tragedy that came with the white men. 

Wattawolunksin's lot had fallen in evil times. The Po- 
cumtucks had been hopelessly shattered, in war with 
the Mohawks, in 1664; and Wattawolunksin being per- 
haps discouraged, without warriors, and dependent upon 
his mother Mashalisk for counsel, and being still young, 
took to drink. 

Now we will go back to events just prior to 1663, when 
Pocumtuck was a great and dreaded name. Its fleet had 
carried victory as far as the Sound; and its warriors had 
humiliated the inhabitants of the Hudson valley. It was 
the seat of an alliance of the tribes of the Connecticut 
valley. The far-off Mohawks had been insulted and 
panted for revenge. In 1664 they engaged the neutrality 
of some of the Pocumtucks' allies. Then mustering a 
powerful force of warriors, swept down upon these peace- 
ful valleys and slew and scattered the whole Pocumtuck 
nation. The river villages of Tawwat, Mattampash, Man- 
tahelant, Carroheagan and Peskeomskut were swept off 
the map. Pocumtuck and Squakheag (Northfield) were 
almost as completely wiped out. 

It is conjectured that one band of Pocumtucks fled 
in their canoes up river, entered the Pequoig (Miller's) 
river as far as the falls and retreated over the mountains 
southward to a glen at the foot of Pine hill, towards Chest- 
nut hill, on the place where A. Thornton used to live. 
Here they may have camped. But the Mohawks were 
hot on the trail. Probably they were surprised by night. 
A fierce battle ensued. We do not know the result except 



54 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

that there was general defeat for the Pocumtucks of these 
parts. Few of them ever returned to their homes. Mash- 
alisk, the mother of Wattawolunksin, probably with many 
of the women and children of the river villages, was hiding 
somewhere in these eastern hills also. Some of the islands 
were reinhabited. Eleven years later one hundred wig- 
wams were destroyed by the Hadley soldiers on Smead's 
island (probably the Indian name was Carroheagan) ; and 
seven years later it is known that there were Indians 
living at Mattampash by the Sawmill river. On the 
battlefield at Pine hill, Rufus Thorton and his father in 
one season gathered a basketful of Mohawk and Pocum- 
tuek arrowheads, pointing in opposite directions as they 
fell thick as hail. Amongst them was a tomahawk made 
in the Mohawk style, well polished, unlike anything 
found amongst the Pocumtucks. This event was in Octo- 
ber, 1664. 

Winter came; and when snow piled up the banks of 
Quinetuk we might have seen Wattawolunksin and Mash- 
alisk sneaking back to their island home and rekindling 
the fires of their wigwams. The man-eating demon Wit- 
tum howled over Kunckwadchu (Mt. Toby) striking un- 
common terror to the hearts of the lonely remnants of a 
race. They piled high the driftwood fire. The ice floes 
grated dismally along the shores. Wattawolunksin with 
a few choice spirits, discouraged as himself, sat drinking 
within the long house, drinking misery to the dregs. And 
so they passed the winter away, recounting the list of 
Pocumtuck victories and her happy days and the number 
of her pretty villages, and her wealth of fishes and corn 
and her hunting hills, eastward, before the fatal day when 
a peace messenger from the Mohawks was murdered at 
Pocumtuck. So they drank, drank, drank, Mashalisk 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 55 

ineffectually scolding, while she filled their bowls with 
the last drop of the winter's stock of rum. And after 
that, for days and weeks, the Indians waited around, 
disconsolately, for the spring. At last it came; and the 
ice went out of the river; and the "red gods called" for 
Wattawolunksin. 

He sprang into his canoe on the first spring day, and 
drifted down to Springfield. He sought out Major John 
Pynchon, and made a negotiation with him for money, 
giving Pynchon security of lands around Mattampash. 
Then he proceeded to get howling drunk and to smashing 
shop windows. For all this, he was arrested and fined. 
Then he had to have more negotiation with Major John 
and more rum to pull him through another winter. And so 
it went on for several years, until, in 1771, the young chief 
died in his island home; Wattawolunksin, the last of the 
Pocumtucks was gathered to his fathers at Mattampash. 

On April 10, 1774, "The Old Woman," Mashalisk, gave 
the following deed of land: "Mashalisk, an old woman, 
the mother of Wattawolunksin deceased, doth hereby 
bargain, sell and alienate a tract of land to John Pynchon 
of Springfield, acting for and in behalf of Robert Bolt- 
wood, Joseph Kellogg, John Hubberd, & Thomas Dickin- 
son of Hadley and their associates . . . which land begins, 
at the southerly end of it at the brook Nepesoneag (Mo- 
hawk) . . . taking in all the land on the northerly side 
of it. It runs up by Quinnetticott river to the brook 
called Sawwatapskechuwas and Mattamooash where the 
Indians have sold . . . the whole tract of land from Nepe- 
asouneag on the south, next Hadley bounds to Sawwat- 
apskechuwas, on the north, and beyond at Mattamooash 
and from Quinnetticott river out into the woods eastward 
six miles from the said river Quinnetticott." 



56 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

On the same day Pynchon took another deed from a 
group of Norwottuck, or Hadley sachems. The land ad- 
joins and even seems to overlap that sold by Mashalisk: 

"Mettawompe, alias Natawasawet for himself and in 
behalf of other Indians, viz. : Wadanumin, Squiskheag and 
Sunkamachue, and for and in consideration of eighty 
fathom of wampum and several other small things, con- 
veys to said parties a certain tract of land lying on the 
east side of Quinnetticott river about seven or eight miles 
above Hadley, adjoining to a parcel of land which the 
said Boltwood and Company bought of Mashalisk, from 
that parcel of land and brook called Sawwatapskechuwas, 
up by the Great River, Quinnetticott, northerly to a little 
brook called Papacontuckquash and Corroheagan, lying 
over against the mouth of Pocomtuck river, Mantehe- 
las . . . resigning to them all the right, title and interest 
in the forementioned lands called Mattampash, from Saw- 
watapskechuwas, Auquepinich, Sankrohoncum, Lemuck- 
quash, and Papacontuckquash, Corroheagan and to Man- 
tehelas and out into the woods six miles from the Great 
River, Quinnetticott." 

A third deed will here throw some light upon the lay of 
the Indian lands, on account of names repeated, showing 
that the same names applied to both banks of the river. 
This is another deed of Mashalisk, given two years earlier. 

"These presents testify, that Mashalisk (the old woman, 
mother of Wattawolunksin) doth hereby bargain, sell 
etc. . . . land the southerly side of Pacomtuck river and 
so lying all along by Quinnetticott river side, down to the 
lower point of the hill called Wequamps, and by the Eng- 
lish, Sugar loaf hill; all the tract of land between the 
Great River, Quinnetticott, on the east and the ledge of 
mountains on the west and on the northward from Pacom- 






BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 57 

tuck river mouth, Mantehelant down southward to We- 
quamps and to the very point of land where the hills 
come to the Great River, called Tawwat, together with 
all the islands in the Great River, called Mattampash, 
Allinnackcooke, Taukkanackoss ... all the whole said 
tract of land Mantehelant, Mattampash down to Taw- 
wat. . . . 

"The said Mashalisk doth sell all to John Pynchon of 
Springfield . . . for a debt of ten large beavers and other 
debts of Wattawolunksin her son; . . . moreover for 60 
fathoms of wampum, two coats, some cotton cloth and 
several other small things. ..." 

I cannot identify the localities to which all those names 
belong. But it is quite certain that Mantehelas was at 
the mouth of the Deerfield river; Corroheagan was Mon- 
tague City; Mattampash at Sawmill river and Tawwat, 
below Sugarloaf, in Deerfield. It is certain that Masha- 
lisk and her son were Pocumtuck Indians; that Montague 
was partly Pocumtuck and partly Norwottuck land; that 
Montague plain was never bought from the Indians. 

The Indian paths found here by the first settlers were 
two, running north and south ; and probably one east from 
Deerfield river, across the plain, to Millers river, towards 
Athol. The first mentioned entered Montague from the 
west slope of Kunckwadchu (Mt. Toby); and there are 
intimations of another one from the eastern side. This 
trail crossed the Sawmill river much as the Central Ver- 
mont railroad now runs; and bore west of Lake Pleasant 
and northward to the mouth of Millers river. On this 
trail, on the high level, south of Billings' mill and west 
of Harvey hill, was an Indian village at some time, judg- 
ing from the character of relics dug up in the field of 
Rufus Thornton, near the railroad, especially from the 



58 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

presence of pottery and stone chips, which indicate abode- 
The other path branched from the first a mile below Tay- 
lor hill; followed the present road from Cranberry brook, 
over Taylor hill to the Sawmill river ford, some hundreds 
of rods below the present bridges in Montague village, 
and thence northeasterly to the railroad and joining the 
other trail on Goddard's hill. Both these trails were early 
fortified by the pioneers as we shall see. 

Previous to the settlement of Montague, and during the 
early Indian wars, these paths were much in use by the 
soldiers of Massachusetts and Connecticut. One curious 
midnight drama was enacted here, the sixth of September, 
1675. As early as 1669, a party from Northampton had 
gone up these paths to explore the great meadows at 
Squakheag (Northfield). In 1672 a surveying committee 
of three men, headed by Lieutenant William Clarke, went 
up to lay out the new village. In the following spring, 
1673, and probably through that summer and the next 
two, a picturesque life was stirring along the Montague 
paths, the settlers going up with their household goods 
and cattle and their children. And then in late summer, 
1675, the storm of Indian war broke. 

Captain Beers, with 36 mounted men, came hurrying 
up from Hadley. They brought some carts to take back 
anything that might be left of Northfield. They passed 
through here probably before noon September 3. In the 
dark of night the same day a dozen horsemen, mudspat- 
tered, hatless and perhaps bloodstained might have been 
seen scurrying over Hunting hill southward again; and 
at intervals, through the night, a horseless straggler or 
two followed. Ultimately fifteen or sixteen of the thirty- 
six returned, one man after wandering in these woods for 
nearly a week, famishing. 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 59 

After another day, on the fifth of September, Major 
Treat with a hundred of the Connecticut troops came up 
the trail and camped in the woods somewhere above 
Millers river. Under the cover of night he came back 
again, each of the soldiers bearing a Northfielder behind 
him on the saddle. The cattle followed later, frightened 
by yelling savages and burning farmsteads. Many of 
them knew the trail, and appeared some time later in 
Hadley. A strange and tragic caravan it must have been. 
Every stir of a deer or bear in the thicket might be an 
Indian, a merciless pursuer. Their hopes of escape were 
only a chance. It was less than two weeks since the 
bloody ambush at Wequamps; and it was less than two 
weeks before the battle of Bloody brook. And they had 
left twenty fresh graves behind them in the woods, while 
eight stalwart farmers lay at Northfield in their gore, un- 
buried. Such were their haste and fears. 

In the spring of 1776, the Montague woods, especially 
along the river, were full of Indians. They built a fort 
on Smead's island and camped in large numbers on the 
site of Turners Falls. It had been a lean winter for them 
and they had come here to lay in a supply of dried fish, and 
to organize for further war. Philip himself was here with 
his personal band of warriors, after wintering at Squak- 
heag (Northfield). On the fifteenth of May, Thomas 
Reed escaped from captivity at Turners Falls, and came 
into Hadley with an account of the careless condition 
in which the Indians were enjoying their fishing and 
feasting. 

All agreed that it was a rare chance to strike swiftly 
at the assembled hosts. Connecticut troops were notified 
of the intended expedition, but were not waited for. Cap- 
tain William Turner, with about 150 men, marched by 



60 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

night, by the way of Nash's Mills and Fall river, and fell 
upon the Gill section of the camp, close to the falls, in 
the gray of the morning of May 19. He slew them in 
their beds, men, women and children, gun muzzles, in 
many instances, being poked through the entrances of 
the wigwams. They killed about two or three hundred, 
who started from their beds and dreams shrieking wildly : 
"The Mohawks! the Mohawks!" The more agile leaped 
into the foaming waters and were pierced with bullets as 
they buffeted the rapids; and many drowned. A few 
swam the river, and alarmed the camps on the Montague 
shore and at the fort on Smead's island. One, Wenna- 
quabin, a Narragansett sachem, executed some time after 
at Newport, R. I., said he lost his gun but swam the river 
and escaped through the Montague woods. Others rallied 
with their reinforced bands and pursued Turner's men 
through the Greenfield woods and morasses, with deadly 
effect. 

Meanwhile, Turner was destroying the munitions and 
provisions of war collected on the Gill side of the river. 
These were more important to the Indians than their 
loss of warriors. " We likewise here demolished two forges 
they had to mend their arms; took away all their ma- 
terials and tools and threw two great pigs of lead (in- 
tended for making bullets) into the river." Says 
Sheldon in the History of Deerfield, "there were skilled 
mechanics among the Indians, doubtless renegade dis- 
ciples of Eliot." 

Soon after the Falls fight, the governments of Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut joined to complete the work 
begun by Captain Turner. Connecticut troops marched 
up the west bank of the river in conjunction with the 
Massachusetts troops under Captain Henchman, who took 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 61 

the Montague shore as far as Peskeomskut. They de- 
stroyed many storehouses left by the Indians. At Smead's 
island they demolished the fort, one hundred wigwams, 
and thirty canoes. The Indians fled at their approach, 
and when their stores were gone, they gradually began to 
return, discouraged, towards the Narragansett country. 
After the summer of 1776, probably few Indians ever 
lived in Montague. 

Relics of the Montague Indians in great numbers have 
gone into the collection at Memorial Hall, Deerfield. A 
great many relics were collected by the Bardwells from 
Montague plain and along the river. Rufus Thornton 
collected many on Dry hill and on his place near the foot 
of Harvey hill, southeast of the village. A stone toma- 
hawk has recently been found by George Holcomb on the 
place of the "first settler," Ebenezer Marsh, near Sunder- 
land line, and a mile from the river. Peskeomskut oc- 
cupied both banks of the Connecticut, and many relics 
have been found there, near the site of the present Grand 
Trunk hotel. There have been many collectors at Tur- 
ners Falls, and at Riverside, opposite. The fine collection 
of Leonard Barton may be seen in the historical rooms of 
the Carnegie library at Turners Falls. Dr. Anson Cobb 
of the Center made an extensive collection, now in posses- 
sion of his son at his residence. Another smaller collec- 
tion was made by Dr. Wright, and is with his son George 
Wright, now in Deerfield. Indian skeletons were exhumed 
on L street at the Falls in 1873. And on the opposite 
shore Mr. Smith dug out seven skeletons in a sitting pos- 
ture, each about seven feet in stature. When the Millers 
Falls trolley road was being excavated, north of Lake 
Pleasant, several skeletons were discovered, indicating 
regular burial. 



62 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Mr. Sheldon of Deerfield has given us the most compre- 
hensive description of such relics as we have. The first 
thing to notice is the "fire stone," used by heating and 
dropping into vessels of wood, bark, clay or stone for boil- 
ing water and cooking food. You know them by evidences 
of fire and water having acted upon them. They are, 
however, simple large size gravel stones. Stone chips I 
have noticed already. These two things are the surest 
signs of a village. With these we look for a depression 
in the ground somewhere near, where the medicine man 
had his subterranean sweat box for treating his patients. 
Mr. Sheldon gives the following list of local relics: "Axes, 
spear and arrow points, knives, tomahawk heads, arrow 
straitners, hammers, drills, gouges, chisels, bark peelers, 
rubbing stones, fleshers, skin dressers, hoes, corn-mills, 
pestles, spinning bobs, stone 'beeswax,' ear ornaments, 
gorgets, amulets, pendants, totems, ceremonial ensigns, as 
maces or banner stones — pipes, aukooks and fragments of 
clay pottery. In graves are found, besides these, beads, 
shell ornaments, wampum, burnt and unburnt vessels of 
clay, and bone awls. All the above not otherwise noted, 
are of stone. . . . The clay pottery was rudely orna- 
mented with conventional lines and dots, although quite 
elaborate specimens are occasionally found." Another 
interesting trace of the Indians is sometimes found in old 
pastures, particularly along the river, groups of depres- 
sions sometimes three or four feet deep, and if dug into 
found lined with unburned clay. These were the Indians' 
barns, where they stored their corn and dried fish and 
meat. The Indian graves show that the body was buried 
in several postures, but almost always with the face to- 
wards the east — a relic of sun worship — and I was told 
by an old sexton in Rowe that the white man has the same 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 63 

custom, in a way, usually putting the head to the west; so 
that if the body should rise it would face the east. I 
noticed this was true of the graveyard in which we were 
conversing; and I have since noticed the same thing in 
other places, where the custom was religiously followed, 
nobody knew why. The places selected for burial pur- 
poses were often in some charming spot in a vale or on the 
slope of a hill. The Indian was nothing if not a child of 
sentiment; and life was full of poetry. In one of the 
graves described by Mr. Sheldon, an Indian mother was 
buried with her babe in her arms. In another burying 
place, near Fall river, at Peskeomskut, twelve Indians 
were buried with heads radiating in a circle. The number 
twelve being the extremely ancient number connected 
with sun worship leads one to conjecture a mystical re- 
ligious significance in the scheme. The Indian was very 
religious. 

There are two traditional views of the Indian which are 
equally false. One is expressed in Kipling's phrase for 
the minor races: "half devil and half child." The other 
is that of the "noble red-man," of certain maudlin writers 
who are not content to give the facts for what they are 
worth. Our Indians were no more devilish than the white 
men and no more noble than any lot of children with 
untried characters. But they were exceedingly interest- 
ing. The Puritans, whose short suit was poetry and whose 
long suit was austerity, are no authority on the subject 
of the New England Indians. They never saw the poetry 
in him; they were qualified to see only his waywardness in 
anger and despair. The Indian was a nature- worshiping 
child, with ideas as fresh as a tale of morning. Two local 
Indian fairy tales have been preserved by Deacon Field 
of Charlemont. 



64 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

THE GREAT BEAVER 

The great beaver preyed upon the fish of the Long 
river. And when other food became scarce, he took to 
eating men out of the river villages. Hobmock, a benevo- 
lent spirit giant, at last was invoked to relieve the dis- 
tressed people. Hobmock came and chased the great 
beaver far into the immense lake that then covered the 
meadows, flinging as he ran great handfuls of dirt and 
rock at the beaver. Finally he threw a bunch of dirt so 
great upon the beaver's head that it sank him in the 
middle of the lake. Hobmock, arriving a few minutes 
later, dispatched the monster by a blow with his club on 
the back of the beaver's neck. And there he lies to this 
day. The upturned head covered with dirt is the sand- 
stone cliff of Wequamps (Mt. Sugar Loaf), and the body is 
the northward range. The hollow between is where Hob- 
mock's cudgel smote down his neck. 

THE DEMON WITTUM 

Wittum lived in the caves under the dark eastern cliffs 
of Kunckwadchu (Mt. Toby). He was a man-eater. The 
natives stood his raids until their hearts were sad and 
revengeful. Then the sachems and medicine men came 
from Peskeomskut, Corroheagan, Mantehelas, Mattam- 
pash and Tawwat and held a great powwow and invoked 
supernatural aid. Hobmock appeared with his club. He 
hunted Wittum from his cave and pursued him up the 
cataracts, up through the clefts of the rocks hotly to the 
secret glen in the fastnesses of the mountain. And he 
gave him no rest there. Up the cliffs, beyond, he chased 
him. Over the woods they went to the loftiest peak of 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 65 

Kunckwadchu. There Wittum paused but a moment, 
looking to hide himself from Hobmock in the water of 
Quinetuk, below. He made his leap from the summit; 
but Hobmock was upon him. He smote Wittum with 
his club. The demon fell upon Sunderland meadows and 
disappeared into the earth and never was seen again. The 
grass has never grown on the spot where Wittum fell. 

By gleaning New England, several volumes of such 
stories could be gathered. I remember of reading in one 
of Professor Hitchcock's reports about a benevolent In- 
dian giant who inhabited the region of Martha's Vineyard 
and bobbed for whales sitting on Gay Head. There was 
another similar giant on Cape Cod by the name of Mau- 
shop. In Maine there was a story of an Indian young 
man who was lost in the woods in a great thunderstorm. 
Then appeared to him a beautiful maiden with flashing 
eyes. She beckoned him to follow. They came to the 
rocky wall of Mt. Katahdin. But the maiden walked 
straight on into the rock without impediment. His aston- 
ishment grew when he found that he could do the same. 
The maiden brought him to her family all of whom like 
herself had bodies of stone and shining eyes. They treated 
him kindly and adopted him into the family. It was the 
Thunder family. All had some part in making the thun- 
der and the lightning, from the father Thunder down to 
all the little Thunders. They made the young man a 
pair of wings so he could soar out on the clouds and prac- 
tice making thunder by beating them up and down. He 
lived very happily thus for some time till he had a great 
longing to see his own village and people and to tell of 
his adventures. So he was allowed to go down the moun- 
tain and out through the cliff as he had come. And after 
that he told everybody not to be afraid when it thundered 



66 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

and lightened, for it was only the Thunder family sport- 
ing and trying their wings. 

The most remarkable lot of Indians' stories in existence 
are the legends of Glooskap, which come from the north- 
east. Thoreau, the naturalist of Lake Walden, heard 
some fragments of the Glooskap legend in Maine, more 
than fifty years ago, but thought little of it. It was 
known to the Indians of New Hampshire. A volume of 
it has been collected from Penobscot and Passamaquoddy 
Indians and another from Nova Scotia. It would be out 
of place here to give any adequate resume of the legend. 
But some of the essential features of it are: Glooskap, a 
very wise and good Indian with the gift of magic, lived 
a great while ago. He rid the country of evil magic and 
monsters of all sorts and taught the people how to make 
the most of their chances. He assisted by his good magic 
all the decent, modest Indians; and gave them great suc- 
cess in life; and confounded the boastful, covetous and 
mean. Indian character is interestingly drawn in these 
stories, as bewitching in their impossible plots as the Ara- 
bian Nights. Heroism and simple virtues are brought 
out in exploits that have been compared with the Iceland 
Eddas, and are thought to have been influenced in early 
times from Iceland. Glooskap went away over the waters 
to the West; but had promised to come again to complete 
his work of making everything right and everybody happy. 
The Glooskap stories are similar to Hiawatha but much 
stronger in ideas. " Glooskap," says the Passamaquoddy 
Indian, "brought the new magic by which one can read the 
heart." 

Our valley Indians were closely related to the Maine 
and Nova Scotia Indians in language; and for other reasons 
are believed to have come originally from the Abenaki 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 67 

stock. Hence the propriety of speaking of their legends 
in this connection. In some form these Glooskap yarns 
were told around Montague wigwam fires. And the Abe- 
naki songs were similar to those composed here, doubtless, 
on every event of life. The Indian, like the Negro, was a 
natural-born singer and song maker. To compose a song 
was almost next to breathing. His songs were simple 
but often very sweet and touching, full of nature parable 
or sentiment. A lot of the old Abenaki songs have been 
preserved; but I am more familiar with those Alice Flet- 
cher collected in the West from the Sioux, Apaches and 
Omaha, which follow the same general principles. I will 
illustrate from these. 

In the first place there were the hero-worship songs. 
Such was the very famous Ish-i-buz-zhi song of the Oma- 
has. Interpreted, it runs something like this: 

Ish-i-buz-zhi was the son of an old Omaha couple. 

Peculiar as a boy, he talked mostly with old women. 

In winter he listened to the old men's hero tales by his father's fire. 

He heard that in the old days they fought only with clubs. 

He made himself a club; and was laughed at. 

Once on a time he heard of an expedition; he stole away with it. 

He was discovered on the trail; but the chief received him. 

He was permitted to scout after the enemy. 

He met the leader alone and slew him. 

He scattered next the foe single-handed, with his club. 

On his return, he was proclaimed by the herald in the village. 

His father said they are again laughing at Ish-i-buz-zhi. 

He remained peculiar, absent-minded, but beloved. 

By feasting on tales of heroes he became like them. 

He never failed the people. 

So to this day the young men sing in any danger: 

"The enemy comes and calls for you Ish-i-buz-zhi." 

In the Memorial Hall list of local relics are many 
totems. With each totem there was a mystery song. How 



68 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

interesting it would be could we unseal again the song of 
each silent symbol there. This can never be. They are 
all lost. But we can know what those songs were like. 
When a young man came to the age of puberty, about 14 
years old, he was sent alone into some wilderness or desert 
to fast and weep; and to pray for a vision, which was to 
determine his character and career. And this was the 
tribal prayer for all youths : 

Wa-kon-da, O Wa-kon-da, here needy he stands; 
And I am he. 

If the youth was sufficiently in earnest the vision came 
after a long vigil. A new spirit came to him. He saw 
his life work for the good of his people. And Wa-kon-da 
gave him a seal, the sign of the eagle, the turtle, or some 
other animal; this was his personal totem, which should 
forever recall to him his vision of the vigil. And a song 
was put into his mouth; this was the mystery song. After 
this, whenever he was alone, he would be heard humming 
his song, nerving himself for the part of a man amongst 
men, as Wa-kon-da had appointed him. 

The priests taught a great deal of wisdom in parable 
songs. One day a priest was walking on the prairie, 
when he spied a bird's nest in the grass with four eggs in 
it. Another day he passed by the same place, when four 
little birds stretched their necks and cried out as for their 
mother, wanting something. Whereupon the priest began 
to hum this song: 

The sound of the young, 

The sound of the young. 

By the time he reached the village his voice was full of 
emotion and tenderness. These were the only words, 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 69 

but in varying strains that could be read in the sound of 
his voice. He seemed to say, Fathers, mothers, priests, 
heroes, the young cry to you, they cry for food, fireside, 
protection from the foe, for ideas of goodness, for wisdom, 
for affection; give to them out of your abundance. This 
was called "The Song of the Bird's Nest." 

There is "The Song of the Wren" from the Pawnee. 
There are no words to the song but the musical name of 
the bird and some singing vocables similar to our tra-la-la. 
Everything is expressed in the sound. It is a deep and 
earnest song of thanksgiving for life, for happiness and 
all the gifts of the Good Spirit. It seems to say: "Every- 
one can be happy, who will but take a lesson from the 
wren." 

A Tigua Indian girl of the pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico, 
was heard one evening singing after there had been a long 
drought and the crops upon which the lives of the villagers 
depended were wilting: 

Rain, people, rain! 

The rain is all around us; 

It is going to come pouring down; 

And the summer will be fair to see; 

The mocking-bird has said so. 

The "He-dhu-shka" was the war song of the Omahas 
sung with full ritual when the tribe was making ready for 
battle. The leader blackened his face to represent the 
thundercloud, which in turn typified war. The singer 
and his song represented a thunderstorm, or the approach 
of the god of war. There were three parts to the song. 
The first was a movement representing the trembling of 
the leaves on the trees, when the thunder gust strikes 
them. The second part represents the flight of the birds 
to cover. And the third, the stir of all nature, the burst- 



70 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

ing of the storm, the downpour of water, the beating of 
the hail, the roar of thunder; all typifying the stir of the 
human heart summoned to battle. 

The Indian love songs are amongst the most charming 
in the world. Tennyson has written: 

In the spring the young man's fancy 
Lightly turns to thoughts of love. 

This was the case with the Indian. When the first 
balmy mornings of spring came, at the peep of day, one 
might hear the piping of an Indian boy's flageolet from 
several different hillsides around the village, wherever 
there was a pretty waterfall, at the foot of a glen ; and see 
here and there black eyes peeping from her mother's wig- 
wam; and hear the rustle of some one hastily robing; see 
a gliding figure amongst the willows; and then hear a 
strong treble voice under the pine tree, by the hill, singing: 

As the day conies from night, 
So I come forth to seek thee. 
Lift thine eyes and behold him 
Who comes with the day to thee. 

This exquisite Indian song with its expressive music has 
been most beautifully paraphrased into English by Edna 
Dean Proctor: 

Fades the star of morning; 
West winds gently blow; 
Soft the pine trees murmur; 
Soft the waters flow. 

Lift thine eyes, my maiden, 
To the hilltop nigh; 
Night and gloom will vanish 
When the pale stars die; 
Lift thine eyes, my maiden, 
Hear thy lover's cry. 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 71 

From my tent I wander 

Seeking only thee; 

As the day from darkness 

Comes for leaf and tree. 

Lift thine eyes, my maiden, 

To the hilltop nigh; 

Lo! the dawn is breaking, 

Rosy beams the sky! 

Lift thine eyes, my maiden, 

Hear thy lover's cry! 

Lonely is our valley, 
Though the month is May; 
Come and be my moonlight, 
I will be thy day. 
Lift thine eyes, my maiden, 
Oh, behold me nigh! 
Now the sun is rising, 
Now the shadows fly; 
Lift thine eyes, my maiden 
Hear thy lover's cry! 

The Indians had many Calumet, or peace-pipe songs full 
of sentiments of "peace on earth and good will amongst 
men," as finely done as anything of the kind in the world. 
There are laughing songs celebrating the "turning of 
tables" upon others. Songs, too, of fate and songs of 
friendship with neighboring tribes, festal songs, marriage 
and funeral songs, songs of honor to the old men, and songs 
of the spirit land. There are songs for every occasion 
and event in life and every mood of the mind and heart; 
but I leave the subject after reference to the celebrated 
"Ghost Dance Song." This form of it comes from the 
Arapaho. In it the Indian is supposed to have been 
meditating upon the good old days, before the white 
man came, when the woods were full of game and the 
waters, of fish; when the rivers ran unpolluted to the sea 



72 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

and were highways for the red men; when the eagle soared 
in the sun and bison herded on the plain; and the Indian 
taught his own law to his children, rising at peep of day; 
when he went whithersoever he would; and was a man; 
and the Great Spirit satisfied his soul with visions, and 
gave him the key to nature. And as he meditates, he 
falls to sobbing; and his heart bursts within him; and he 
rises wildly staggering about, the apparitions of his ances- 
tors passing reproachfully before him, and on his lips a 
wild, weird, heartrending cry, half a prayer to the Creator: 

Father, have pity upon me! 

I am weeping from hunger of the spirit: 

There is nothing here to satisfy me. 

This I believe was the very song that was suppressed by 
United States law and the force of the United States army 
in the days of old Sachem Sitting Bull, because it had such 
tremendous effect upon the Indians. It was some such 
song that King Philip's envoys sang in the old Indian 
fort above Hadley meadows in the winter of 1674-75, 
after forty peaceful years of living with the whites, and 
daily extending the friendly greeting, netop; and after 
which the Indian's cornfields were never again plowed in 
Montague meadows. 

The Indian was a natural orator and much has been 
preserved as samples of his eloquence. He used at least 
two devices of speech with telling effect. His speech was 
ornate as a meadow in May with poetical metaphor, his 
language flowed on as a river full of imagery and music. 
This was the quality of grace. And then he was good at 
logical argument, often hitting the nail on the head with 
steady consecutive blows, with tremendous cumulative 
effect. History records many instances of his logical en- 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 73 

counters, to his advantage, even when matched with the 
wits of pretty clever white men — for example, Father Hen- 
nepin, one of the first Catholic missionaries in Canada. 
Hennepin had been relating his traditions of the creation 
of the world and the mysteries of the Christian religion. 
The Indians listened enrapt, and when he had done, ap- 
plauded. But when they were invited to accept the Chris- 
tian religion they replied that they were glad for the white 
men that they had such an excellent religion; and they 
were thankful as red men that they had a good one of 
their own, much better suited to their understanding. 
But Hennepin says, "We told them their tales were false." 
But the Indians replied that then the white men's tales 
must be false also, since they seemed very similar in mean- 
ing. Hennepin concluded in despair: "The greatest good 
that can be done among them is to baptize their dying 
infants." 

There was another similar encounter at Buffalo in 1805, 
when Red-jacket publicly replied to the Protestant mis- 
sionaries to the Senecas: 

"Brothers: We do not understand these things. We 
also have a religion. It teaches us to be thankful for all 
the favors we receive; to love one another; to be united; 
and we never quarrel about religion. 

"The Great Spirit has made us all; but he made a great 
difference between his white and red children; he has given 
us different complexion and different customs. Why may 
we not conclude that he has given us a different religion 
according to our understanding. The Great Spirit does 
right. He knows what is best for his children. We are 
satisfied. 

"We do not want to destroy your religion or take it 
from you. We only want to enjoy our own." 



74 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

In the records of the old Stockbridge Indian mission, 
in this state, has been preserved a statement of the ethical 
and religious teachings of the Mohegans before the white 
man came. It is not so different from the missionaries' 
teachings, except for the technicalities of church theology 
and the differences of the outdoor life the Indian lived. 
These Indians were allied members of the Pocumtuck Con- 
federacy; and these teachings may be depended upon to 
be almost identical with those which hummed on the morn- 
ing air, by every riverside, in Montague, three hundred 
years ago. Says Aupaumut : 

"Our ancestors, before they ever enjoyed Gospel revela- 
tion, acknowledged one Supreme Being, Mon-nit-toow, 
author of all things, good to all his creatures. They 
believed also in the Wicked Spirit, Mton-toow, who incites 
to anger, hate, stealing, murder, envy, malice, evil-talking, 
and war." 

The following custom was observed: the head of each 
family, man or woman, would begin with all tenderness as 
soon as daylight, to waken up the children and teach them 
as follows; I abbreviate Aupaumut's text: 

I. My children: By the goodness of Mon-nit-toow we 
are preserved through the night. Be kind to all people. 
Be not called uh-wu-theet, hard-hearted. 

II. My children: Help the aged, listen to their instruc- 
tion; that you may be wise. Be slow to speak, moderate 
in laughter; listen not to evil; live in peace. 

III. My children: Take the stranger by the hand and 
set him by the fireplace. You sometime may be a 
stranger. 

IV. My children, listen: Speak always nothing but the 
truth. 

V. My children: You must never steal anything from 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 75 

your fellow men ; for always remember that Mon-nit-toow 
sees you. 

VI. My children: You must not murder, because you 
wish to see long life and not to anger Mon-nit-toow. 

VII. My children: You must get up early to put on 
your clothes and muk-sens, and tie your belt about you 
that you may be ready to do something; for the lazy shall 
shamefully beg and steal. 

VIII. And further, my children: When you are grown 
up, you must not take wife or husband without the consent 
of your parents and relations. 

IX. My children: At all times obey your sachems and 
chiefs; speak no evil of them; for they have taken great 
pains for your safety and happiness. 

A pretty good substitute for the "Ten Commandments." 
And on the whole the Indians lived them too. George 
Sheldon, the venerable historian of Deerfield, has said: 
"The uncontaminated native of the soil was honest and 
sober, kind to strangers, and given to abundant hospi- 
tality. His word was as good as Uncle Samuel's registered 
bonds. Property was as safe in his keeping as in the 
vaults of any safety deposit company, and he had as 
little need to sign the total abstinence pledge as Father 
Matthew himself." He [goes on to imply that it was 
civilization, grafted upon this beautiful wild stalk that 
raised all the havoc with Indian character. When the 
white men first came to New England, they had little or 
no just fear of the Indians. It took fifty years of white 
men's guns and rum and vices, together with the teachings 
of a long list of missionaries (which Mr. Sheldon gives), to 
undermine the native character and make of the Indian 
the "child of the Devil" he played the part of at last: 
" John Eliot, Daniel Gookin, Thomas Mayhew, John Cot- 



76 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

ton, Josiah Cotton," etc. — "y° u do not forget the self- 
denying labors " of these and others — "entire failure." 
The Puritans in Northampton, and other places, fined, 
imprisoned and whipped Indians for "breach of the Sab- 
bath in travelling to and fro;" for '" bringing apples from 
Windsor on Sunday;" "for firing a gun" on the same 
day. And for some of these offenses they were even sold 
as slaves and sent to West Indian plantations. The 
polite names for these children of the forest, especially 
in religious letters and pamphlets, before ever there had 
been any war or trouble, may be sampled as follows: 
"Children of Hell" (of course this was theoretical and 
technical, not on account of Indian conduct); " Angels of 
the bottomless pit"; "Loyal subjects of Satan," "who 
hath set up his kingdom in these waste places." It took 
the Indian just forty years to get murderously mad at 
all this. And when one relenting Indian woman in 1675 
warned the inhabitants of Hatfield that her people were 
meditating injury to the settlements, the Christian select- 
men ordered her torn to pieces by dogs. And Captain 
Samuel Mosely wrote in a postscript to the governor, 
Oct. 16, "shee was so dealt withall." Far be it from me 
to blame the Christian selectmen of Hatfield for so "deal- 
ing withall" under strain of provocation sufficient to 
unsaint us all. Neither do I blame the Indians for all 
the things they did when they could stand things no 
longer without resolving that either they or the white men 
should henceforth live in these valleys alone. 

The Indians were, in their way, industrious, before the 
white men came, a habit which they soon got over in 
contact with easy ways of doing things. One of our 
valley historians, Sylvester Judd of Hadley, has quaintly 
compared the ambitions of the degenerate, quarter- 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 77 

civilized savage with those of the upper class of wealthy 
white folks, to live without useful work; and he finds a 
likeness in the two cases, in the resultant human character 
and amusements. In 1658, the Deerfield and adjacent 
Connecticut river meadows supported a much larger popu- 
lation of Indians than they ever have of white men. Ac- 
cording to an estimate by a commission of the United 
Colonies, there were, hereabouts, 5000 souls. In the 
winter of 1637-38, famine struck the white settlement 
of Hartford. Major William Pynchon undertook the 
contract to deliver at Hartford and Windsor five hundred 
bushels of Indian corn, which he bought of the Pocum- 
tucks. Every little village along the Montague shore as 
well as Cheapside and Deerfield, doubtless became sud- 
denly a corn shipping port. "Doubtless," says Sheldon, 
"files of women, with baskets on their backs, were seen 
threading the narrow pathways to the river." Fifty 
canoes were thus loaded to the gunwales with yellow 
maize from the underground barns, and dispatched down- 
stream, to save the infant English colony — a stirring scene 
of commerce for those days. 

There are other instances, tending to show that the 
Indians could sometimes be forehanded and thrifty. Mr. 
Charles Barnard of Boston says that their so-called war 
paths were more properly post roads and highways of com- 
merce. Many Indians have denied the common imputa- 
tion of the whites that their chief occupation was war. As 
a matter of fact the Indians were for the most part loving 
and loyal in their friendships and alliances. But they were 
gifted with a hot resentment of injury and insult and were 
unquestionably cruel in wrath and pursued their broils 
with intense devotion when once upset. And yet they 
loved peace and none have phrased its beauties more 



78 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

eloquently than they. These Indian post roads were 
built by friendship and not by war. They were the hard 
beaten paths of peace. The Indians were social and great 
entertainers. They loved to receive messages from dis- 
tant peoples and to send their representatives to greet dis- 
tant tribes. Sometimes whole tribes were the guests of 
other tribes. Describing the roads, over which they trav- 
eled and trafficked, Mr. Barnard says: "They built the 
first roads. One of their trails extended from Montreal to 
New Haven; and another from Massachusetts Bay to the 
headwaters of the Hudson. These lines of travel avoided 
the mountains and ran direct to the water courses; for 
the Indians took advantage of every opportunity to use 
their canoes. The white man followed the Indian trails. 
These became bridle paths. Then followed the cart ; then 
came roads, highways, turnpikes. And the railroads of 
to-day follow the old Indian trail." Montague lies at the 
crossing of two of these main systems of Indian paths. 

We have many occasions in these days to remember the 
Indian handicrafts. The New England Indians, so re- 
markable in their intellectual and moral development, were 
not great producers in handicraft. Yet there is a limited 
number of specimens of pottery, carving and other work 
preserved to show that they had the genius of the race in 
no mean degree. In handicraft the Indian is supreme. 
Few people realize the beauty and value of the Indian's 
handiwork as high art. The blankets, baskets, pottery, 
and silversmith work of our Indians of the southwest, 
serve to teach us what our Indians of New England once 
were. These things charm those who have seen them, 
and they are much sought after by art collectors. There 
is a sincerity about their work that cannot be imitated. 
A Pima basket must last a lifetime or disgrace its maker. 



BOOK IV. THE INDIANS 79 

Anything but the purest silver offends the sentiments of 
the Navaho smith. And none of them will use a design 
that is not a prayer or a record of his feelings about nature 
surrounding him at the time he works. The Navaho 
woman will take as much as a year if necessary to com- 
plete a single blanket design. She takes her loom out 
under the green tree and fleecy sky and weaves in the 
shimmering sunshine and lightning flashes ; and she weaves 
these experiences with their religious symbols into her 
web. She does her dyeing also where she constantly sees 
the color of the sky and the tree trunks and the brown 
earth and the rock and the soft reflections from the water 
and sunset strata of clouds; and she works these into her 
web. She lives on, from year to year, with nature; and 
never returns to duplicate an item of work. Each prod- 
uct successively is unique, a bit of eternity brought forth 
to sight by one who has lived close to the unseen world. 

"Our ancestors' government," says Aupaumut, already 
quoted, "was a democratical." Father Hennepin also 
draws an interesting parallel. The missionaries, Henne- 
pin says, discouraged, moved West. But long after they 
were gone they heard that the Indians missed them and 
wished them back, in exchange for the secular European 
lords who came after them. For they said, those Christian 
brothers lived and taught a life in common, such as the 
Indians had always been used to. 

They had a Chief Sachem. The office was hereditary 
in the female line. That is, not the Sachem's son, but one 
of his sister's sons, the eldest or the likeliest, was elected 
by the nation to succeed him. The office was for life, 
only on condition chat the Sachem prove a fit leader of 
his nation. He received no compensation or tribute or 
taxes — only certain voluntary tokens of affection, some 



80 



HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 



assistance in building his "long-house," the official resi- 
dence, some presents of skins from the hunters; and belts, 
moccasins, ornaments, etc., from the women and food to 
entertain strangers. 

The Sachem had a counsel of the old men, who were 
called chiefs, all elected on account of fitness. He had 
also one hero who was the war chief; one oivl, a man of 
strong memory and eloquent speech; and a messenger or 
runner. The rest of the nation consisted of young men, 
or warriors. The priests and medicine men were not 
under the direction of the government. 

The Indians of the valley were the Squakheags at North- 
field, the Pocumtucks at Deerfield and surrounding towns, 
including Montague, the Norwottucks at Hadley and 
Hatfield, whose lands extended into Montague. The Aga- 
wams at Springfield, the Wononokes at Westfield and the 
Quaboags at Brookfield. These all belonged, with other 
more distant tribes, like the Mohegans, to the Pocumtuck 
Confederacy; which, together, were one of the strongest 
nations in New England. These tribes were bounded on 
the north by the uninhabited woods; on the east by the 
Nipmucks; on the south by the Pequots and on the west 
by the Mohegans of the Berkshire valleys. 





Montague Cii 





Southwest corner 



X County Roads O Wendell Road 
yyyy A small River 3 rods -wide 
a). Gunn's Tavern 

Map of Montague, surveyed in i 764 by Eltsha Root. l R ™ *^£^J^ Wr/kW 

L Northeast corner of Sunderland 

J 



Book V "-+- Pioneers 

NO sooner were "King" Philip and Canonchet dead 
than the white men again pressed up the fertile valley 
of Connecticut river. During the Indian war everything 
north of Hadley had been wiped out; and the Indians had 
for a time considered themselves as safe at Northfield and 
Peskeomskut as in the depths of the north woods ; and had 
even planted three hundred acres of corn on the Green- 
field meadows opposite Deerfield, according to the English 
scouts; having just finished a few days before their fatal 
luck at Turners Falls on May 18. Hatfield and Spring- 
field had barely escaped annihilation. But in one week 
the Indian's dream of reinhabiting his old home tumbled 
like a house of cards about his head. 

Deerfield was resettled inside of four years; Pocomigon 
(Greenfield) and Squakheag (Northfield) very soon after; 
and Sunderland rose from its obliteration most vigorously 
in 1714 and even projected a second colony, the same or 
following year, into the present town of Montague. 

There was a scarcity of building timber in the valley. 
The Indians had a practice of burning the timber to facili- 
tate their hunting; and white men for pasture. There 
was tall timber in the north part of Sunderland, known as 
Hunting Hills (Montague); and thither the proprietors 
of Sunderland resorted for materials for their houses. 

Town Records 

" Northampton March 23, Yl\% 
"Then granted to Daniel Beeman, Edward Ailing, Ben- 
jamin Man, Edward Ailing Jr. and Nathaniel Frary the 



82 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

privileges of a stream in Swampfield upon which there is 
a sawmill erected called Sawmill Brook, and to have the 
free privileges of timber in said Swampfield at the north 
side of Sawmill Brook, to the said grantees in the use of 
Sawmill Brook so as not to impede the errecting of a corn- 
mill upon said brook. The above grant to be upon the 
limitation following arrangement. The grantees shall sell 
the boards to any of the inhabitants of Swampfield not 
exceeding twenty shillings per thousand feet at the mill, 
as also that they shall have the said grant of the stream 
no longer than they shall continue a mill there for service 
of the said inhabitants of Swampfield and to no other, if 
the said inhabitants shall see cause to buy them. 

"We also grant to said Beeman, Ailing, Man, Ailing Jr. 
and Frary as an encouragement for said mill, being a pub- 
lic benefit, thirty acres of land in some convenient place 
in Swampfield. 

" Lemuel Partridge, ) Committee for 
" John Pynchon j Swampfield." 

So then a sawmill was already standing in Montague 
the second year after the resettlement of Sunderland. 
The location was above the Central Vermont railroad 
bridge near Billings' mill of to-day. As early as 1715 the 
lumberman's ax was ringing on Stoddard's hill. A roman- 
tic gorge it was here, the river rushing through pine-clad 
steeps and fairy meadows, issuing below the mill upon an 
alluvial plain through gravelly terraces covered with 
groves of towering rock maples and turning, an eighth of 
a mile below, against a steep bank and sliding down into 
an oozy mile long swamp where the owl hooted supreme 
in the midday twilight of the thick forest cover. 

In the locality of the old mill, the first cabins were built. 



BOOK V. PIONEERS 83 

In the first boundaries described several years later, " Stod- 
dard's hill" is already one of the landmarks. Perhaps 
somebody by that name was one of those first unknown 
comers. The timber grant mentioned in the record was 
the southern and western slopes of Harvey hill, south- 
east of Montague village, along the Indian path. And it 
may have been in the dry clearing, in Rufus Thornton's 
field by the railroad, that the lumbermen built their log 
cabins, on the site of the Indian village. Here was 
cultivatable land, already the nearest fit for the plow. 
Perhaps also some may have settled near David Sprague's 
and E. P. Gunn's on the southern stretch of the trail; for 
one of the first houses mentioned was built on Gunn's 
land for a tavern ten years later. 

And here is a record of a field laid out on the west side 
of "Hunting hill," lying on the "Great River," dated 
Sunderland, January 16, 1719. Most of the proprietors 
named, shortly became citizens of the north parish (Mon- 
tague) ; though not all of them settled on the land men- 
tioned. Some settled in the " Meadow," which is this lay- 
out. Some on "Hunting hill" (Taylor's); and some on 
"Country Road" (Federal street). In the first division 
are the names of Thomas Hovey, known to have settled, 
Benjamin Graves, William Arms, Samuel Billing, Samuel 
Harvey, for whom Harvey hill took its name, Isaac Graves, 
Benjamin Barrett, who was chairman of the Committee 
that built the first schoolhouse, Samuel Smith, Captain 
Field, Ebenezer Billing, Jr., who settled in 1730, Nathaniel 
Dickinson, Joseph Root, who became the first town clerk, 
Luke Smith, Stephen Crowfoot, Samuel Taylor, whose 
name was given to "Hunting Hill." Samuel Billing, the 
smith, who settled on Montague plain, Daniel and Eleazer 
Warner who in 1730 settled the remote Arcadian vale 



84 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

west of Harvey hill, the northern part of the district 
known much later as Lafayette, Ebenezer Marsh who 
about 1728 built a log cabin north of the cascade on 
"Hunting hill brook" (Cranberry), Daniel Smith, Na- 
thaniel Smith, Samuel Graves, Joseph Field, Jr., Joseph 
Dickinson, William Willard, Simon Cooley, Daniel Russell, 
James Bridgman, William Scott, Joseph Clary, a settler, 
Jonathan Graves who came at the same time with Eben- 
ezer Marsh and settled on Hunting hill brook where the 
Mooney house now stands in the fork of the road, Nathan- 
iel Gunn, who settled the George Toomer place in 1726, 
Ebenezer Kellogg, Isaac Hubbard, Deacon Hubbard, 
Manoah Bodman, who settled in 1737, Lieutenant, after- 
wards Captain Ebenezer Billing, 1st, who came in 1730, 
Richard Scott, Joseph Smith, William Allis, a pioneer at 
Chestnut hill in 1738, Samuel Gunn, Samuel Montague, 
the grandfather of Medad Montague for many years a 
town father. 

There were three and one-half acres in each lot of this 
division. The second division was in ten acre lots, one 
lot being reserved, as in the first division, for benefit of 
the ministry or the town. The list of forty-three pro- 
prietors is the same. The village and Federal street lands 
and here and there an estate in the hill country eastward 
were laid out between 1730 and 1740. Amongst those 
who came in on this second grant of lands were Ensign 
Simeon King, a member of the first board of selectmen; 
and there appear the names of Ellis, Bartlett, Benjamin, 
Burnham, Wilson, Wright, Brooks, Whitney, Newton, 
Grover, Baker, Rowe, Bushnell, Kinsley, Taft, Clapp and 
Tuttle. 

It is told that Tuttle, while deer-hunting, was separated 
in the woods from Ebenezer, his son. Meeting unawares, 



BOOK V. PIONEERS 85 

Ebenezer supposing his father to be a bear amongst the 
moving branches, shot and killed him. 

There is a more or less legendary tradition of two ad- 
venturous young settlers, Enoch and Gideon Bardwell, 
grandsons of Robert Bardwell of Hatfield, the old Narra- 
gansett Indian fighter, who was also with Captain Turner 
at the Falls fight, and was cool enough to count the dead 
Indians who went over the falls during the fight. A mile 
square of land on the western end of Montague plain was 
said to have been granted Bardwell for these services. 
What time the Bardwell boys were here is not known. 
And the title to land was not definite until 100 acres were 
confirmed in 1733 to Samuel Bardwell, father of Gideon 
and Enoch. But Gideon lived in Deerfield during the 
Indian wars and did not permanently settle until 1761. 

Nature was in her wildest form and mood in those early 
days. When Colonel Frary's mill saw was singing through 
the pine trees of Harvey hill, bears and wolves and even 
Indians still skulked through the woods. The fact that 
no white man was ever known to have been killed by 
Indians on the charmed soil of Montague has led Mr. 
Clapp and others to err in supposing the early life here 
tame as compared with that of sister towns. The facts 
do not warrant the conclusion. It was the same har- 
assed, tragic life. The welter of savage war rolled all 
around Hunting Hills. The Pioneers were already 
scarred and scathed by that war when they came with 
family circles already broken by bloody death. They 
lived here for a long generation in the midst of alarm, gun 
in hand, when they went to sow and reap these meadows 
or to grind their corn at the mill or to worship at a neigh- 
bor's cabin, and at night many and many a time to huddle 
with the cowering, crying children into one of the stock- 



86 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

ades, when expeditions had been threatened against the 
settlement, as we shall see. And when we add to these 
conditions that fact that a goodly number of Hunting 
Hills' boys were out through the war, scouting in the 
north woods, serving in the frontier forts, and marching 
against Canada, and (how many we do not know) left 
their bones in the wilderness — the tameness begins to dis- 
appear. 

The last general division of land was that of Miller's 
(Montague) plain, in 1745, to the following men: Samuel 
Harvey, Jr., Nathaniel Cowdry, Jonathan Root, Joseph 
Dickinson, Ephraim Sawyer, Absalom Scott, Aaron Leon- 
ard, Israel Richardson, Jonathan Graves, Richard Scott, 
Thomas Keet, Samuel Taylor, Isaac Graves, John Gunn, 
Isaac Barrett, John Scott, Stephen Smith, Isaac Hubbard, 
Jr., Nathan Tuttle, Nathaniel Gunn, Daniel Hubbard, 
Daniel Smith, Joseph Wells, Noah Graves, Ensign Cooley, 
Daniel Harvey, Fellows Billings, John Billings, John 
Marsh, Zebediah Smith, Charles Chancy, John Brigdman, 
Benjamin Barrett, Samuel Downer, Ebenezer Graves, 
Ebenezer Billings, Jr., Samuel Graves, Samuel Billings 
Smith, Samuel Harvey, Joseph Root, Josiah Alvord, 
Ezekiel Smith, Captain Billings, Jed Sawyer, Ebenezer 
Marsh, Jr., Eliphalet Allis, Moses Dickinson, Judah 
Wright, Samuel Smith, William Scott, Jr., Samuel Billings, 
2d, William Allis, Widow Harvey, Jonathan Bridgman, 
Samuel Gunn, Jonathan Billings, Manoah Bodman, 
Eleazer Warner, Joseph Mitchel, Jonathan Barrett, Jona- 
than Russell, Jonathan Field, Samuel Clary, Benjamin 
Graves, William Scott, Lieutenant Clary, Joseph Field, 
Samuel Scott, Jonathan Scott, Edward Elmer, Ebenezer 
Marsh, Widow Gunn, Luke Smith, Nathaniel Smith, 
Zebediah Allis, William Rand, Deacon Montague, Joshua 



BOOK V. PIONEERS 87 

Douglas, Deacon Hubbard, Abner Cooley. The greater 
part of these were already settled in other parts of the 
parish. Some of these never moved from Sunderland. 
There were eighty lots in two ranges, one north, one south. 
While Sunderland was still in the first upheaval of 
resettlement, building houses and ditching the meadows; 
and the Sawmill river works were a post exposed to the 
Indians; and surveyors were at work about Hunting hill, 
pending an early settlement of the farms; exciting news 
came from Canada, by way of Albany and Westfield, that 
"all the enemy Indians was out, in order to invade our 
frontiers." Whereupon Colonel Stoddard of Northamp- 
ton sent by the first post to Governor Dummer an anxious 
request to strengthen the defenses of the valley towns. 
The weakness of Sunderland is mentioned : 

" Northampton, April 21, 1724. 

"Many of our towns are in poor condition, . . . Sun- 
derland etc., having no soldiers to scout or cover their 
laborers in their out-fields. And in case we employ any 
men in such service, the government refuses to pay them. 
So that many of our people are in a fair way to be ruined." 

On May 22, Sunderland spoke for herself, through the 
selectmen: "We being very poor, living altogether by hus- 
bandry, our lands not being thoroughly subdued and 
lying scattered and remote from one another, and com- 
passed round on the wilderness side with thick swamps, 
fit receptacle for the enemy to hide and lurk in to our 
damage, hath occasioned our maintaining in the last year 
for a considerable time a scout and guard of our own men 
at our own charge (as yet) for the covering our laborers." 

In response to such appeals as these, the General 
Court of Massachusetts, on Saturday, June 13, voted to 



88 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

raise ninety-nine additional men in the scout and guard 
service of the insufficiently protected towns. "Voted, that 
nine of the above said ninety nine men be posted at Sun- 
derland under a sergeant and be employed in guarding the 
inhabitants of that town in getting in their harvest." 

Indians ambushed farmers at Green river a little to 
the northwest of us in August, 1725, shooting Deacon 
Samuel Field. Scouts frequently reported Indians in the 
north woods above here. The Champlain valley swarmed 
with them until September 10, 1725, when De Vaudreuil, 
governor of Canada died, and the Canadian policy was 
changed by his successor. 

A new Indian war began in 1744 and raged intermit- 
tently for nineteen years till the Peace of Paris in 1763, 
February 10. There were the same alarms as before. 
But during the eighteen years of peace our people had 
better subdued the land and built a good many houses. 
The population was between three and four hundred souls. 
On the other hand, the efforts to destroy these settlements, 
in order to recolonize the land with French and Indians 
from Canada, were much more determined and better 
organized than ever before. The Province of Massa- 
chusetts was thoroughly aroused by the danger of annihila- 
tion. The energetic Governor Shirley made our frontier 
to the northwest fairly bristle with guns and forts. A 
net was spread around us to catch if possible every 
straggling Indian, and to confine the zone of battle to 
the wilderness. The forts were of the best type of fron- 
tier fortification, and stretched from the Merrimac river, 
in New Hampshire, to the New York boundary. Amongst 
them, were those at Charlestown and Hinsdale, New 
Hampshire, on the Connecticut river; and at Northfield, 
Bernardston, Colrain, Heath, Rowe and Williamstown in 



BOOK V. PIONEERS 89 

Massachusetts. As the war proceeded, and it became 
apparent that this net had frequent leaks, every town in 
the valley gradually became fortified with blockhouses and 
palisades, for refuge. 

On August 20, 1746, Fort Massachusetts (in Williams- 
town), which the orator, Edward Everett, called the Ther- 
mopylae of New England, had been captured in a deadly 
assault of 750 French and Indians. On the 25th, five 
persons were killed in the hayfield at the Bars in West 
Deerfield, at a spot once supposed to be the headquarters 
of the Pocumtuck Confederacy. And little Eunice Allen 
was left with a tomahawk buried in her brain; and yet 
lived. There had also been an attack at Colrain, and some 
scalping. Some farmers were plundered at Northamp- 
ton, twenty miles inside the great net. A whole army of 
scouts were out in the north woods all winter, anxiously 
watching from every mountain peak for Indian smokes; 
and scalping Indians for one hundred pounds apiece under 
provisions of a bounty offered by the Province. 

In March, 1747, the wily Indians slipped through the 
meshes of the net again and captured Shattuck's fort in 
Hinsdale; and burned the deserted settlements of Win- 
chester, Hinsdale and Keene in New Hampshire. The 
postrider who carried the news of this raid to Northamp- 
ton was Joseph Severance, afterwards a citizen of Monta- 
gue, and already a cripple from former Indian fights. 
And amongst the fighters who rushed north to the defense 
at this time was Gideon Bardwell who years before, with 
his brother Enoch, had frontiered it alone on Montague 
plain, not far from the scenes of Philip's war and the 
exploits of their grandfather Robert. The Deerfield com- 
pany engaged the Indians at a place called " Great Mead- 
ows." But the Indians squirmed out of the fight and 



90 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

April 7th attacked Fort Number 4. in Charlestown. On 
April 15, the same party reappeared near Northfield, head- 
ing south, and killed two men. July 15, a young man 
was shot in the cornfield at Bernardston. And on the 
22d, another man was picked off at Colrain. 

On the 19th of October a band of forty Canadian 
Indians, under general orders to destroy these settlements, 
appeared on the very banks of Pequoig (Miller's) river, 
near its mouth, and there killed and scalped the Deer- 
field scout, John Smead, who was on his way with messages 
to warn the inhabitants this side the river. Smead was 
only three months back from Canadian captivity. He 
was one of the heroes of Fort Massachusetts. He had 
just left his wife, his two oldest sons and the babe, Cap- 
tivity (born on the captive march), in Canadian graves. 
These Indians left their wounded leader, Sieur Simblin, in 
the hands of the Northfielders. And only for this reason 
perhaps abandoned any further raid south and returned 
to Quebec for new orders. 

This was a pretty close call for the parish of Hunting 
Hills. There were already settlers about Pequoig river, 
almost within hearing of the war whoops of the slayers 
of John Smead. And down the valleys to Kunckwadchu 
(Mt. Toby) for many a month and year, the tale of John 
Smead and of Sieur Simblin was told; and children and 
faint hearts went trembling to bed, while the brave and 
cautious went on arming and fortifying the town and 
walked wide from every bush by the field's edge. 

As the years of watching dragged on, these terrors did 
not abate; they increased. In March, 1748, a scalp and a 
prisoner were taken from "Number 4." On May 9th, 
a man was killed at Southampton. On June 16, fourteen 
men were ambushed at Hinsdale. And things kept on 



BOOK V. PIONEERS 91 

at this rate all summer, blood flowing freely on the three 
sides of us. Large parties of French and Indians were 
chased by our valley soldiers clean across the Hoosac 
and Taconic mountains and into the Champlain country. 
Our scouts in turn were hunted over bloody trails across 
the Green mountain ranges. This was the case, in May, 
with the scouts of Captain Melvin, who had pursued to 
within the range of the guns of Crown Point; and fleeing, 
left six dead on the mountain paths, several of them North- 
field men. 

On receipt of the news of the fate of their townsmen 
Northfield proclaimed a solemn fast; and engaged, on the 
16th of June, the Rev. Mr. Ashley of Deerfield to preach 
the sermon. In the midst of this service, the great gun at 
Fort Dummer, up the meadows, boomed the alarm of a 
fresh attack. There was a rallying in hot haste. Four 
men had been killed, and six were taken captive. It was 
the work of that same Sieur Simblin (St. Blein) who had 
threatened the destruction of Hunting Hills and Sunder- 
land the year before, when John Smead was scalped at 
Pequoig river. 

A command of forty English soldiers was attacked, 
June 26, going from Number 4 to Fort Shirley; and, in a 
four hours' battle, seven men were killed and wounded; but 
the Indians were driven off. July 14th, there was another 
ambush in Hinsdale, in which two were killed and eleven 
taken captive. Another man was killed on the 23d, right 
on Northfield street. On August 4th, there was a new 
attack upon Fort Massachusetts, by 136 French and Indi- 
ans. On October 7, 1748, peace was declared in Europe. 
But the Indians were not all called back from our frontier 
by France for nearly a year. 

There was a short two years of peace. Then the mili- 



92 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

tary carpenters and engineers were again set feverishly at 
work repairing the broken forts and building new ones. 
Two new strongholds were built in Charlemont in place 
of the mountain forts, Pelham and Shirley in Heath and 
Rowe. The expeditions of Sieur Simblin and others had 
taught the prudence of fortifying places outside the old 
belt of forts, already broken through so many times. 
Consequently houses of refuge were ordered palisaded, 
at Huntstown (Ashfield), Roadtown (Shutesbury), Cold 
Spring (Belchertown) and at Hunting Hills. There were 
two well-known palisades here, one on each of the prin- 
cipal north and south trails. One surrounded the old 
Clapp place on Federal street and another was near the 
Oscar Rice place, west of the Sawmill river ford. The 
present house there is said to be framed from timbers of 
the old palisade. Henry Shepard used to tell the tradi- 
tions, how on several occasions the Indians' scouts crept 
within gun-shot of this palisade (Fort Allis); and when 
discovered, fled down the Sawmill river. These forts were 
built in 1752. 

On June 11, 1755, a fresh chapter of horrors and fears, 
like that of the decade before, opened with the tale of men 
killed and captured in the cornfields of Charlemont. All 
summer, after this, probably not a hill of corn was hoed or 
gathered in the whole county, without military guard. 
The cry that went out from Greenfield was the cry of 
them all; and it was almost word for word like the one 
sent out from Sunderland in '47: "The people are in much 
distress; and much grain must be lost for want of guards. — 
I expect many will venture hard to save their corn, not 
knowing how to support their families without it. . . . 
They conduct with caution and prudence of late as I ever 
knew them. . . . They are at great expense in hiring 



BOOK V. PIONEERS 93 

guards. No mischief has happened since the disaster at 
Charlemont — though they have made frequent attempts. 
— I fear they will be too cunning for us." This was in 
July. 

In August the Greenfield guard had almost been broken 
through; which called out another cry to the governor of 
the Province: "We are in great distress. . . . Indians 
have been about. . . . We have but seventy men left 
in town; and how we shall be able to get hay to keep our 
stock and seed our ground, I know not." And Greenfield 
was the last barrier between Hunting Hills and Canada. 
More than once during those years, Greenfield men an- 
nounced that they were exhausted; and they must soon 
run for their lives; since they could no longer watch and 
fight. 

A terrible year was 1756. In all of these towns men 
worked their land under arms and at night slept in or near 
the fortified places, perhaps with pickets at the outlying 
farms. The enemy made repeated raids, killing here and 
there all stragglers from the guards. At the end of the 
summer, Greenfield, reduced now to forty -three men, de- 
spaired: "It is evident we cannot subsist here much longer; 
that we must fly to some other place, not only for safety, 
but for the necessaries of life." Relief was sent from 
Boston, and Hunting Hills had escaped another close call; 
for already Indians were creeping into Deerfield and 
Northfield and carrying off captives, and killing men not 
far from the scenes of the Falls fight of 1676. 

The campaigns towards the Champlain valley against 
Canada had for two successive years failed. All that 
could be done now was to increase the garrisons of the forts 
in the Deerfield and Connecticut valleys, for another year 
of defensive warfare. Everywhere men were working 



94 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

under guard and sleeping on their arms. The nerve of the 
men at times seemed breaking down. There was a panic 
in the valley when news came that Montcalm had taken 
Fort William Henry on Champlain and the Indians had 
been turned in to butcher hundreds of our men. At first 
there was the sound of Rachel weeping for her children. 
But there was need for a sober second thought. Our 
outguard was shattered and gone. There was need that 
the home guard summon the remnant at home, and fight 
for the homestead. For Montcalm now saw little obsta- 
cle to the long cherished dream of France to drive the rem- 
nant of the English from this valley and return it to the 
Indians under her dominion. 

At this time Sir William Pepperell, commanding officer 
at Springfield, received orders from the governor: "If the 
enemy should approach the frontier, you will order all 
wagons west of Connecticut river to have their wheels 
knocked off; and to drive the said country of horses, to 
order all provisions, that can be, brought off; and what 
cannot, to destroy." 

The winter of 1758 was a quiet one. But in the spring 
the killings and capturings came along like a fixed order 
of things, till the very thought of spring had come to be 
looked forward to by that generation as Gethsemane. 
And this particular spring was under the very shadow 
of the cross; proving again that it is always darkest before 
dawn. 

Then new courage came. A sign of promise was seen 
in the sky. Massachusetts had long borne her cruel cross 
alone. William Pitt, the ablest prime minister England 
ever had, and the best friend America ever had, of all her 
glorious English friends, had just come to power; and 
instantly stretched his great hand across the sea to us. 



BOOK V. PIONEERS 95 

And, besides, a spirit of American nationality was awaking 
in the different colonies. For while our old Hampshire 
boys were still breaking their hearts and their bones 
against the stone walls of Ticonderoga, buying a victory 
there at the cost of 1900 men, and were scaling the high 
impregnable walls of the island fortress of Louisburg, help 
was pouring in from England ; and states to the south were 
forwarding a new army to multiply several fold the dead 
boys of the New England frontier. Amongst the Hunting 
Hills men known to have been in Colonel Israel Williams' 
regiment with General Amherst were Joseph Root and 
John Clapp. 

Victory now perched on our banners. Ticonderoga 
surrendered on July 27, 1759, to General Amherst, just 
a year and a day after the second capture of Louisburg. 
On September 18, Montcalm surrendered Quebec to Wolf. 
And a little later, Rogers' Rangers destroyed the village 
of St. Francis, which had fitted out nearly all the Indian 
expeditions against us. Crown Point surrendered. Mon- 
treal alone remained for another year's work. But on 
the 8th of September, 1760, Vaudreuil surrendered the 
whole province of Canada to the English. The Connecti- 
cut valley after eighty-five years of bloody expiation, of 
God best knows what crimes of her own against the Indian, 
and of the old country against France, was at last free to 
sow and reap and to bring forth the good treasures of 
their souls which they certainly had brought to plant in 
this wilderness. 

The Montague town records do not give any roll of 
men in the service, but merely some vote or two about not 
collecting the rates of the men out in the war. The first 
precinct meeting of the North Parish of Sunderland was 
held during the lull of war, on July 29, 1751, at Joseph 



96 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Root's. The only business, however, was the matter of 
hiring preaching. The parish was set off as a separate 
district in 1753; and then silence reigns as before until 
1755. And even then no town government is elected and 
not much money raised; and it was voted not to collect 
the rate of "the men absent in the war." There is every 
reason to believe there were a good many absent, especially 
of the young men. 

A few fragmentary memories of the home-coming of 
the old Indian scouts, who so many years had their lodge 
in the wilderness, have survived through the intervening 
centuries. Joseph Severance had been in the "Meadow 
Fight" at Deerfield in 1704, and received a wound which 
crippled him for life, but did not prevent his riding post 
more than forty years afterwards. It was he who carried 
the news down the valley of the fall of Fort Massachusetts, 
in 1746, for which he received seven shillings sixpence from 
the Province treasury. And again he rode post to North- 
ampton in December of that year, when the snow-shoe 
scouts had descried Indian smokes in the north woods. 
And again, in the spring of '47, he reported the peril of 
Shattuck's fort in Hinsdale; and a little later rode towards 
Fort Massachusetts to bring in a soldier taken sick on 
the road. Severance told his yarns by tavern fires; and 
showed his scars to the youngsters here, for a few peaceful 
years; and died in 1766. 

"When Gideon Bardwell came home from Deerfield," 
says his great-grandson, Samuel, "he moved a cupboard 
on an oxcart, together with cooking utensils. In one com- 
partment was a pig; and in the next one was placed my 
grandfather, then two years old. Gideon built the Chaun- 
cey Loveland house." The infant thus cradled with the 
pig grew to be another soldier. 



BOOK V. PIONEERS 



97 



During the last years of the war, Hunting Hills was 
recovering from her paralysis in civic affairs. Town meet- 
ing was a regular thing after 1756. She raised her minis- 
ter's salary 50 pounds in 1758; had even put up the shell 
of a meetinghouse before the close of the war; and had 
done something for schools and bridges. Taylor Hill was 
abloom with apple orchards; the meadows were fat with 
corn. And the homestayers had even worked up a siz- 
able Anabaptist schism. But that is another book. Our 
ancestors certainly had the gift of occupying under the 
very shadow of death. 




Book VI+- Winning Democracy 

WHEN Hunting Hills was established as a separate 
district apart from Sunderland, in 1753, it was 
named Montague, after a popular hero of the Indian wars, 
an English sailor, Captain William Montague, who com- 
manded "The Mermaid" at the first capture of Louisburg 
in 1745. This was chiefly an expedition manned, by 
land and sea, by our Connecticut valley Indian fighters. 
" The Mermaid " was dispatched to Boston with the news 
of our solitary victory of those days. Eight years later, 
while our people were palisading houses on the Indian 
paths, against a renewal of war, perhaps the new name 
was an omen of future victory. William Montague was 
son of Edward Richard Montague, Viscount Hinchinbroke 
and Lord Lieutenant of the County of Huntingdon; and 
grandson of Edward, third Earl of Sandwich. The fact that 
in Old Hadley, Sunderland and most of the towns of the 
valley, including Hunting Hills itself, were the numerous 
and very sterling stock of Richard Montague, descended 
with Captain William from the same old Norman Drogo 
de Monteacuto of the Conqueror's time; and coupled with 
the fact that Richard's kinfolk had a town named for the 
family in Virginia, where they lived, it seems quite correct 
to say, that the town was named as a compliment to our 
local family of Montague. The gallant Sir William, with 
his blithe news from Canada of the success of our own boys, 
was the occasion; but our pride in our home-made Monta- 
gues was the bottom reason. This becomes quite apparent 
by a very little investigation. The first Montague, Rich- 



BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 99 

ard, was one of the fifty -nine founders of the town of Had- 
ley, and he was twice selectman of that town and a famous 
Indian fighter, up and down the valley. His son Peter 
Montague was in the Turners Falls fight, as was also his 
daughter Martha's husband, who lost his life in it. Peter 
was a selectman of Hadley many years, and four times 
representative at Boston. Another son, John, was also 
selectman, and was one of the Hadley men who drove the 
Indians from Deerfield in 1704. And his son, John, was 
considered the third greatest man and farmer in his day in 
Hadley. And when John's sons emigrated to South Had- 
ley, the town of Hadley observed a day of fasting and 
prayer. One of these sons, Peter, was at Louisburg, under 
old Seth Pomeroy of Northampton. They were a tall 
race, and were said to build the doorposts of their houses 
higher than common, "that a Montague might walk in 
with his hat on." Another grandson of Richard Monta- 
gue, Samuel, was one of the forty first settlers of Sunder- 
land. Town -founding was the Montague habit. He was 
always a leader there in war and in peace; in church he 
was the head deacon; and a captain in the army; and of 
course many times a selectman. His son Samuel was 
one of the founders of Bennington, Vt., but that was a few 
years later than our present story. Another son of Deacon 
Samuel was Major Richard Montague, one of the founders 
of the town of Leverett and its leading spirit for many 
years. He was also one of Rogers' Rangers in the French 
war. He lived on the Long Plain road near Mt. Toby, 
and was so much of a personality here in three towns, in 
his day, that it was once popularly taken for granted that 
this town was named for him alone. There were Monta- 
gues amongst the pioneers of this district, who were as 
usual much at the front. And to speak again of things 



100 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

that came after, New England's greatest statesman, Dan- 
iel Webster, was maternally another Hadley Montague. 
It is safe to say then that at the middle of the eighteenth 
century no single family this side the river had impressed 
itself quite so much upon the public consciousness and 
popular affection as the family of Montague. By act of 
the General Court, August 23, 1775, the district of Monta- 
gue became a town of the same name. 

According to the deeds of Mashalisk and Metawompe 
in 1674, all the present territory of Montague up to a line 
running due east from the southern terminus of the old 
canal, at Montague City, belonged to the proprietors of 
Hadley. It seems clear that the little brook whose bed 
was once developed for the canal was the Papacomtuck- 
quash, or "little Pocumtuck," of the Indians; and not 
Cold brook, and certainly not Pequoig river, as one old 
map gives it. 

A settlement was begun at the present site of Sunder- 
land village in 1674, as ruins, occasionally mentioned in 
the reports of the Indian scouts, during the next forty 
years, show. But it was abandoned in Philip's war, and 
burned by the Indians. After that the parts of Swamp- 
field (Sunderland) near Hadley were included in the vast 
"pastures," where sheep and cattle roamed with their 
shepherds all summer. The parts above Kunckwadchu 
(Mt. Toby) were known as "the hunting hills," probably 
a name borrowed from the Indians. 

The "old Sunderland line" ran from the mouth of 
Cold brook east six miles across Great Pond (Lake Pleas- 
ant). When Montague district was set off in 1753 a two 
mile addition was made on the north to a line running east 
from the mouth of Papacomtuckquash, the original bound 
of the Hadley proprietors. June 21, 1768, Joseph Root 



BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 101 

in a petition to the General Court asked for the annexation 
of the unincorporated land remaining between the Monta- 
gue line and Miller's river, being about 8000 acres belong- 
ing to lands owned by John Irving of Boston. And an 
act was passed November 7, 1770, annexing this territory. 
Mr. Irving remonstrated; but the order stood. A good 
part of a two mile addition on the east was set off to 
Wendell, February 28, 1803, when that town was incor- 
porated. The final territory of Montague, of irregular 
boundaries (three-quarters round its borders) on account 
of the natural course of streams, is contained within a 
six miles square. Nearly half of this is a semi-arid pine 
plain of sea sand and a slight mingling of fertile loam which 
responds curiously to cultivation. Indian corn, beans 
and grain of excellent quality but of fairy size are raised 
by very little labor on fallows. There is a yarn to the 
effect that Solomon Root of Taylor Hill, who owned land 
on the Plain, was often seen strolling in from that direction 
on Sabbath afternoon. W T hen asked by his church-going 
neighbors how he had spent the Lord's day, "On my 
knees," replied Solomon, "watching my corn grow." This 
tract was the bottom of an ancient sea lagoon, with two 
or three interesting hills like islands and two gems of 
lakes, all that is left of the inland sea. Fully fifteen miles, 
of the twenty -four of boundary of Montague, are traced 
by the Connecticut and Miller's rivers and Wickett brook. 
The rest of the border east and south is a steep mountain 
wall pierced by highways at only three points in the course 
of ten miles : at Goddard's brook to Dry Hill and Wendell 
Center, at Sawmill river to Shutesbury, and at Cranberry 
and Long Plain brooks to Leverett. The bounds were 
surely set by nature. 

The majority of the inhabitants, apart from those of 



102 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

the newer villages, have from early times been prosperous 
planters. When all is said, Montague came out of the 
Indian wars blessed amongst towns. The eultivatable 
area is exceptionally small, but that little is exceedingly 
good and has always supported a goodly number of happy 
homes, while at the same time attempts to live off the 
tracts of poor soil without scientific knowledge have im- 
poverished and driven out a good part of the noble stock 
that originally settled the town. And yet Montague has 
never been like the hill towns, depopulated at any time. 
The valley farms and homes here have undoubtedly 
increased in productiveness and comfort steadily from 
the beginning. Yet there is the broad belt of hill country 
on the east that abounds in abandoned farms. Montague 
has had its periods of social decadence and has shared 
the universal decay of taste in the architectural arts com- 
mon to the commercial age of crude manufactures with 
lots of tinsel and gloss and foolish ornament made by 
machinery. Nevertheless two hundred years of civic ex- 
perience have laid the basis of a democratic life, sweet and 
sound to the core, that God grant shall yet blossom and 
come to rich fruitage. 

There has at least been no fatal discontent here. The 
young and energetic assume the burden and heat of the 
day here, quite unlike those of some of the hill towns. The 
very lay of the land early made of us a community; has 
cultivated in the inhabitants the self-reliant qualities 
in fraternal union. The historian Green, has thus de- 
scribed the ancient Saxon community from which our New 
England towns originated: "A belt of forest or waste or 
fen parted the community from its fellow villages, a ring 
of common ground." Much of our hill region eastward 
was for many years such common ground, with settlers 



BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 103 

here and there in the forest. On the other side was the 
broad river. The land here offered a great variety of 
choice. At this, again the heart of the Saxon leaped up. 
"They live apart," says Tacitus, the Roman observer of 
our European ancestors, "each by himself, as woodside, 
plain, or fresh spring attracts him." But these independ- 
ent Englishmen who came here had the spirit of close 
kinsmen in all they did; often were blood related and 
moved from place to place in clans strengthened by civic 
and ecclesiastical covenants. It was an early saying here 
that there were "Roots enough to plant Hampshire County 
and Gunns enough to defend them." A later edition of 
the proverb had it: "There are Roots enough in Montague 
to plant all the Fields of Leverett. " And one local 
annalist has pointed out that, during the Revolution, 
public affairs were carried on chiefly by the families of 
Clapp, Bangs and Gunn. All this too is ancient Saxon- 
dom. All the names of towns ending with " ham " (home), 
"stead," "ton" (town or tun) indicated the valley, brook 
bank or plain where one of these blood-related, cove- 
nanted fraternities or guilds lived. It was Pel-ham, the 
home of the Pels or Peels, Shel-burne, the brook of the 
Skellings, Hubbardston, the croft of the Hubbards, War- 
wick, Warren's corner and so on. Montague might have 
been called Clapham in good old Saxon style, or Gunton, 
Bancroft, Rootwick, Marshfield or just Montague as it 
was called. And in the gradual extension of this family, 
kindred feeling from the "wick" and the " Croft" to the 
cosmopolitan community of to-day lies the evolution of 
democracy. 

The little New England town democracy is different 
from the rest of the country still, except where New Eng- 
land influence has molded things; different from the rest 



104 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

of the world. As James Bryce, the English historian, 
has said, our town democracy is made up of "old English 
institutions which have ' suffered a sea-change, into some- 
thing rich and strange. ' ' There is this survival of Saxon 
primitive democracy and there is something more. All 
government was originally democratic. We have seen 
that the Indian government was democratic. So at first all 
nations; so all wild races of to-day. But founded at first 
upon narrow blood kinship, democracy has been taken in 
hand by all sorts of impatient tutors and made to know 
that kinship is national not local; that religion is catholic 
not tribal ; that the holy church is universal not denomina- 
tional; and last of all we shall learn that justice is social 
and not class-righteous. The Germans lost something 
of their original democracy under the kings and lords 
that succeeded the strong tutor Odin; the Greeks under 
the Thirty Tyrants and Alexander; the Romans under 
the Caesars, and the English under their Tudor and 
Stuart kings. But they did not lose everything; 
they only suffered, to become strong; and so more 
free. 

The church for fifteen hundred years had nursed in its 
bosom, obscurely, fineness of fellow feeling, the worship 
of beauty, the love of nature, the practice of art, the tradi- 
tions of mutual aid and mutual government by abstract 
or scientific principles of right and justice, tempered by 
Christian forgiveness except in cases of disloyalty to the 
church itself; and every other democratic thing it had 
cherished and developed for human use. Our New Eng- 
land towns inherited a certain part of all this in its Congre- 
gational church, the democracy of the Medieval catholic 
church plucked forcibly from its bosom and again secular- 
ized through the processes of the Protestant "Reforma- 



BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 105 

tion." Our " selectmen " were in England the parish 
wardens, or select vestrymen; our "moderator" of town- 
meeting was in the old country the "moderator" of the 
Presbyterian synod; our public school the outgrowth of 
confirmation in church doctrine and the Scriptures. In 
the civic story of Montague down to 1830 we may trace 
the growth of all our dominant American institutions out 
of the Congregational church which our fathers brought 
here from England. 

The earliest record of a meeting of the "free-holders" 
of the precinct of Hunting Hills is in 1751. Now a "free- 
holder," or "freeman" was a male member of the Congre- 
gational church who had reached the age of twenty-one 
and was in good and regular standing. No other persons 
could hold office or vote. The first precinct warrant was 
from William Williams, Justice of the Peace for the County 
of Hampshire to Jonathan Root of Sunderland, husband- 
man. It sets forth that application had been made by 
Simeon King, Daniel Ballard, Eliphalet Allis, Samuel 
Smead, and Jonathan Root, etc. So the freeholders were 
ordered to meet at the house of Joseph Root on the 29th 
of July, 1751, and choose a moderator and a permanent 
chairman; a committee to call future precinct meetings; 
o see if the freeholders would hire preaching; raise and 
rant money for expenses; and choose assessors and col- 
lectors. The freeholders of the second precinct of Sunder- 
h nd met accordingly at two o'clock on the day appointed 
a id chose Deacon Newton, moderator, Joseph Root, clerk, 
>eacon Newton, Eliphalet Allis, Samuel Bardwell, Daniel 
iallard, and Simeon King to give out future warrants. 
They voted to hire preaching; and directed Deacon New- 
ton to get a man; to raise two hundred pounds old tenor; 
and chose Josiah Alvord, Eliphalet Allis and Samuel 



106 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Smead to assess the same; Enoch Bard well and Ephraim 
Marsh to collect it. 

Two things are to be noticed here. The first is that 
this meeting was dated in "the 25th year of his Majesty's 
reign." In other words, this was part of a royal province 
and the business was the king's business. The second is 
that this meeting, while having all the essential form of a 
New England town meeting, and was the original form of 
a town meeting, was a purely ecclesiastical affair con- 
ducted on the basis of lay freeholders constituting the 
church. The Congregational church, the established 
church of the Province, was the one local body through 
which the king kept law and order and built up and pre- 
served the state. 

November 22, 175%, the Rev. Judah Nash was ordained 
and settled and the town church organized at the house 
of Joseph Root, which was then the tavern, on Thayer's 
hill to the south, overlooking the present village. 

No other precinct meetings are recorded. It looks as 
though the strenuous times that followed were either 
without formal business meetings or that the records were 
loosely kept and were so lost. There is an imperfect 
record of a meeting December 1, 1755. It was then 
voted to build a bridge from Ensign King's to Moses 
Taylor's over the Sawmill river at the Great Swamp, east 
of the meetinghouse. 

The meetinghouse had been begun in 1753, but it was 
far from done. It was now in 1755 voted to have six 
windows on the back side, two on the back side of the 
pulpit; to plane the boards that cover the back side of 
the meetinghouse; to allow each man to build his own pew; 
and to have a shell " bio wed " on the Sabbath day as a 
signal. It was also decided to have four months of winter 



BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 107 

school; and Samuel Harvey, David Ballard, and Ebenezer 
Marsh were directed to hire a teacher and to provide a 
place for the school. 

Here we see our little republic exercising more fully the 
regular public duties of freeholders, as they legally were, 
with slight changes up to 1830: caring for the public prop- 
erty and the king's highways and providing for elementary 
education. These, in addition to hiring preaching (which 
was their first duty), were the public charge of church 
members, or freeholders; and the expense was rated upon 
the whole community. 

The first regular March meeting was held in 1756, the 
eighth day. A full record is extant and of all meetings 
of the town from that day to this. Joseph Root, the first 
parish clerk, was now made clerk and treasurer of the dis- 
trict. The board of selectmen and assessors had five 
members, now usually fixed at three. At first there was 
no fixed number. There might be as many as seven or 
nine. Note also that this first board of "selectmen" and 
assessors are the same men as those who constituted the 
purely ecclesiastical officials of 1751. They were Joseph 
Root, Samuel Bard well, Ensign Simeon King, Josiah 
Alvord, and Samuel Smead. There was a full line of 
town officers chosen, including hogreeves, deerreeves, seal- 
ers of weights and measures, measurers of wood bark and 
lumber, pound keepers, fence viewers, constables, tything- 
men, turnkey, highway surveyors, school committee. 
There was no provision for the poor. There were no poor 
to provide for. 

A special town meeting was called December 13, 1756, 
at which church and school and bridges again got equal 
attention. Two bridges over Sawmill river needed repair. 
The winter school was looking for a place and a teacher. 



108 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Samuel Harvey, Deacon Root and Rueben Scott were 
directed to see to that. The Rev. Judah Nash was voted 
seventy loads of wood "at the lawful money per load." 

The next town meeting was held March 7, 1757, in 
the new "meeting house" or "town house," as it was 
called — never, church. But the meeting was adjourned 
to the house of Ensign King. It was voted to build a 
schoolhouse 16x18 feet "of hewed or sawed logs" and "to 
set the said house south of the road near Ensign King's 
barn and near the Mile Swamp." Benjamin Barrett, 
Reuben Scott, and Samuel Harvey were chosen building 
committee. The house they built was soon afterward 
burned; and another built or bought of John Scott; and 
that burned in 1762. Then "The Little Brown School 
House" was built where the brick church now stands. 
And this remained until it was old and outgrown. I will 
describe it in detail in another book. 

In 1757 a bridge was built "near the meeting house." 
The meetinghouse stood north of the common and the 
bridge was over the river where the road used to dip under 
the hill back of George Stratton's house. October 3d, it 
was voted to finish the body of the meetinghouse all with 
pews except two or three short seats in the body near 
against the end doors. Lieutenant Clapp, Deacon Keet, 
and Ebenezer Sprague were a committee "to determine 
the manner, place, and bigness of said pews and seats 
and to plan out the same." The "manner" of the whole 
architecture will appear in the book on Religion. 

November 15, 1757, it was voted: "that we seat the 
meeting house and that we will choose nine suitable and 
meet persons to do the same, who are to consist of three 
sets of men and that each set of seaters are to seat the 
meeting house by themselves in the first place; and after 



BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 109 

they have done that, the whole of said nine men are to 
meet and to perfect such a plan as they can best agree on." 
The sets of seaters chosen were these: Ebenezer Sprague, 
Joseph Root, and Rueben Scott; Clark Alvord, Samuel 
Smead, and Jonathan Currier; Ebenezer Marsh, Zebediah 
Allis, and Nathan Smith — the freeholders' best men. The 
seating of the meetinghouse was almost an annual cere- 
mony. By this record we are reminded again that it was 
in "the 27th year of his Majesty's reign." The seating 
of the meetinghouse was a relic of aristocratic and feudal 
society, soon to be sloughed off in the democratizing proc- 
ess. Be it remembered that valuing a man by his prop- 
erty has been the great heresy of civilization. Chal- 
lenged and combatted by rising democracy, the heresy 
changes from form to form, like Proteus, the old man of 
the sea. The Puritan aristocrats of the eighteenth century 
insisted upon deference to their titles, and their distinctions 
of wealth. Nothing better shows that modern democracy 
is no theory, but a life that even its projectors had no 
consistent theory about. But they accepted its divine 
principles and rose blindly with its star whithersoever it 
should lead them. Certain titles stood first and took the 
front seats. The Minister's family was first or equal to 
the Colonel's. Then came the Captain, and next the 
Deacon, the Lieutenant and the Ensign, followed by the 
different ranks of wealth. The titles themselves were 
bestowed' upon the most well-to-do. A man's tax rate 
determined his seat in the meetinghouse from year to 
year. Propertyless persons, non-church members and 
boys over ten were assigned the galleries, which were " not 
seated," that is, not graded. There were men among the 
Puritans, as the old records show, as jealous of their neigh- 
bors' seats as the ancient Pharisees, who "loved the chief 



110 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

seats in the synagogues." Which goes to show that mod- 
ern democracy is a growth and that we may find that it is 
not yet full blown. Yet the root of it was in them, a sense 
of personal and public responsibility for everything from 
"tongs and a great shovel" for the school to the "burning 
question" of the Rev. Judah Nash's seventy loads of wood 
at fifteen shillings a load; and from keeping oneself with- 
out reproach to solving the greatest theological questions. 

The legislation, in short, of early town meetings, has two 
interesting things about it in addition to its democracy : 
its care for small particulars and its prescription of a way 
of thinking. We have been gradually finding out that 
there is more democracy in letting a committee or repre- 
sentative tend to details than in making everybody's busi- 
ness nobody's business; and more religion in a multitude 
of live opinions about God and the Scriptures than there is 
in one dead creed. How quaint it seems to-day to read 
for instance the Montague "shell" votes, from 1751 to 
1802, often both at the March and December town meet- 
ings, "voted to blow the shell;" "voted to pay Lieutenant 
Clapp for blowing the shell; " " voted to blow the shell until 
December;" and in December, "voted to blow the shell 
the rest of the year; " and then after twenty or thirty years 
of this, it comes up like a brand new subject, " voted that 
a cunk shell be blowed." 

"Mar. 5, 1759: voted that Joseph Root be allowed 
twenty shillings for blowing the shell on Sabbath day;" 
"voted that we buy the shell of Lieutenant Clapp for one 
pound ten shillings." 

"Mar. 7, 1763: voted that Deacon Gunn be hired to 
blow the shell as a signal for going to meeting until De- 
cember." 

"December 5: voted that Asahel Gunn be paid two 



BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 111 

shillings to turn the key;" "that Moses Taylor be paid 
twelve shillings to sweep the meeting house;" "that Jona- 
than Gunn be hired to blow the shell." 

"December 21; 1778: voted that the shell be blown." 

"December 6, 1779: voted to pay Samuel Church for 
blowing the shell." Not even the Revolutionary war 
could compel them to leave it to a committee. I pick 
the votes at random. 

"May 6, 1785: voted that the cunk shell be bloed." 

"1787: voted to hire sum man to blow the shell." 

" 1790: voted that we blow the shell." 

"1792: voted to hier the shell bload." 

"1801: voted to build a belfrey to the meeting house." 
This vote caused a transference of the semiannual legis- 
lation from the shell to the bell, for the next thirty years. 
And over the bell the debates were long and ardent, as to 
how much bell ringing there should be in a day, in a week, 
on Sunday, about curfew, about midday, about the bell 
ringer's salary, about excusing the Baptists from the bell 
tax. 

There were many other small matters that required 
all the machinery of town legislation running at high pres- 
sure. "Mar. 6, 1765: voted to provide wands for the 
wardens and staves for the tything men." "Dec. 3, 1770: 
voted that no child under 10 go up galery, and that tyth- 
ing men bring down such boys out of galery as are dis- 
orderly and set them before the deacon seat." "1794: 
voted that the meeting house be painted the same as 
Sunderland." "Dec. 6, 1802: voted that the bell be rung 
ten minutes at a time on week days." " 1819: vote that 
gentlemen may sit with their hats on, except when they 
address the moderator." But this fussy side of the crude 
democracy was disappearing in 1820 when it was voted 



112 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

to choose a committee of three from the Baptists and three 
from the Rev. Aaron Gates' society to settle the dispute 
between them about repairing the belfry. 

But there was a serious element of tyranny in the ec- 
clesiastical town democracy. "May 31, 1758: Raised by 
the hand of Doctor Thomas Williams Esq., of Deerfield, 
one of his Majesty's justices of the peace for the County 
of Hampshire, one pound lawful money, the same being 
a fine as by law laid on Stephen Corbin for his neglect of 
attending the public worship on the Lord's day, which 
money is by the selectmen of this district to be disposed of 
to the poor of the same. 

(Signed) " Joseph Root." 

Yet let no one say the Puritans made "blue laws." This 
is blue enough; but it is nothing compared with the thing 
they fled from, the rank Episcopalianism of tyrants like 
Laud in England. 

One thing is clear, that there was a growing spirit 
amongst the people here. As fast as their eyes opened 
to the light a majority swung towards it. It became 
harder to collect church fines. In 1763, Judah Wright 
had been fined for neglect of worship and compelled to 
give a note in payment of the fine. He fought his case and, 
on December 6, had his note returned to him. He proved, 
"a sore leg." And afterwards avenged himself by turning 
Baptist minister. 

There was, however, no organized resistance to the ec- 
clesiastical tyranny of the town until about 1768, when the 
district of Montague, which was of course the Congrega- 
tional church, brought suit against a group of Anabaptists 
for neglecting worship and other delinquencies. These 
people had organized a church of their own the year before. 



BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 113 

But it was looked upon by the authorities as a criminal as- 
sociation. Moses Severance and Captain Root were on the 
prosecuting committee. The Baptists lost their case; but 
September 13, 1769, appealed to the Superior Court. The 
court conceded the Baptists certain independent rights 
upon their procuring certificates individually as to the 
sincerity of their religious professions. The town had to 
call off the constables. 

But the majority of the voters were not yet satisfied. 
A committee was immediately chosen to join with Sun- 
derland in a petition to the General Court for permission 
to further prosecute the Anabaptists. 

And what was an Anabaptist? The word means one 
re-baptized. We call it Baptist for short. The early Bap- 
tists no doubt had very annoying manners; and were as 
intolerant in their attacks, as the established order was 
against them. This is nothing peculiar. New ideas, in 
getting attention, usually involve the bringer in trouble. 
The Baptists spared no coarse ridicule of the custom of 
infant baptism, well-written sermons, and even all orderly 
thinking. They were supposed to foster ignorance and 
even immorality. But of course all denominational argu- 
ment like this is merely an expression of dislike to pay at- 
tention to something different from our old habits. In Vir- 
ginia the established church (Episcopal) fined them 2000 
pounds for neglecting to have their children baptized "by 
a lawful minister." But they were made equal as a sect 
there in 1785. 

In Massachusetts the fight was kept up longer, for a 
reason that did not exist in Virginia. The Congregation- 
alists were themselves heretics in the eyes of the govern- 
ment. Virginia was regular in her religion. Massachu- 
setts had sacrificed much to establish her church. To 



114 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

admit another heresy would seem to leave their very con- 
stitution at the mercy of all their old enemies in England. 
Consequently many looked upon the Anabaptists as fatu- 
ous rebels. Bewilderment turned into bitterness against 
them. It does not appear that Baptists were one bit 
treacherous to the common good during the Revolution. 
Of course the fears, like all the well-known fears that 
anarchy will result if the people call their souls their own, 
were grounded in fancy, in the tyranny that lurks in us 
all. Sentiments softened towards the Baptists. 

December 7, 1807, the Baptists were regretfully excused 
from paying for singing and expense of ordination of the 
new minister, Aaron Gates. But the Baptists, with a cer- 
tain amount of controversial meanness, turned about and 
dubbed the established church, "The Rev. Aaron Gates' 
Society." They seldom failed after this to obstruct all 
town business that related to the meetinghouse and the 
church, originally the first and chief business. By 1820 
there was a strong third party to the trouble, the suffering 
public, who, weary of contention, took the attitude of "let 
them fight it out between them." 

Even the ancient right of the Congregational minister 
to pray before the town meeting was in dispute and had to 
be put annually to vote. The Congregationalists of course 
usually won and a committee was sent out to bring in the 
Rev. Aaron Gates. " March 1820: voted that Rev. Aaron 
Gates be invited to come and open the meeting with 
prayer." At another time it was voted that Rev. Aaron 
Gates be sent for "to come and pray with the meeting." 
But in 1822 it was "voted that the annual meeting in the 
future be opened with prayer." As the sectarian point 
of the Congregational minister's right was given up, this 
seems to have settled that matter. 



BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 115 

Now there were more serious divisions. As early as 
1815 there was a strong reaction towards the mother 
church of England, in which the son and namesake of the 
long time sainted pastor, Judah Nash, took a leading part. 
Amongst the prominent names of families uniting to form 
Trinity Church were Wrisley, Taft, Kinsley, Taylor, Esta- 
brook, Shepard, Rowe, Marsh, and Williams. 

In 1825 a still more serious rupture occurred. A strong 
body of citizens, including Colonel Benjamin Stout Wells, 
three Root families, Medad Montague and Samuel Bard- 
well, withdrew from the first church and later organized 
the 2d Congregational Society (Unitarian). And then fol- 
lowed a contest, unique almost for its determined spirit on 
both sides. It was now no longer a conservative old 
church persecuting the errant heretic. It was a battle of 
equals. It was a prime rift through the very heart of the 
community. 

Victory wavered between the two main camps for some 
years. At the first outset Mr. Gates' official and financial 
standing, which had stood the Anabaptist guerrilla war- 
fare, now slipped from under him. He became the minis- 
ter of a waning sect. And it was " voted to allow the Rev. 
Aaron Gates his salary, less the tax of persons who have 
left the society." At the March meeting, in 1826, there 
was a drawn battle on the question of possession of the 
meetinghouse. It was "voted to let each religious society 
occupy the meeting house their equal portion of time, ac- 
cording to their proportion in assessment of the state tax ; " 
and then the vote was rescinded. 

Nobody was satisfied. The "Unitarians" wanted a 
place in the meetinghouse. The "Orthodox" wanted it 
alone. The established church had in substance disap- 
peared. A large circle of outsiders egged on the Uni- 






116 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

tarians. They had full meetings. There were many who 
had smarted under church fines and petty cuffings from 
tythingmen, worried by religious lawsuits and the baying 
of constables, set upon them by the church, and they were 
pleased, with wicked glee, to see power taken completely 
from the church. Three meetings were held in May, 1826, 
and the battle was renewed for possession of the meeting- 
house. Three times it was "voted not to divide the meet- 
ing house." The "Orthodox" faction was having its 
innings. Then Mr. Gates called for his dismissal in De- 
cember, 1828, one month after the organization of the 
Unitarian church, with twelve members. Mr. Gates had 
been here twenty-three years following the fifty-two years 
of Judah Nash. It is safe to say that the whole idea of the 
ministry by this time had undergone a revolution. Lib- 
erty had been gained; and a large unchurched element, 
together with three new Protestant churches, four in all, 
for a population of 1000 souls. And never again were the 
clans of Montague "to walk together to the kirk." Mr. 
Warren Bardwell, a number of years ago, told me with 
something, I imagine, of the fervor of the old controversy, 
that " the Unitarian church has kept the whipping post off 
of Montague common for seventy-five years." 

There was a year in the First church without a pastor. 
Then the Rev. Moses Bradford served three years with- 
out settlement and was dismissed. The church then re- 
mained two years pastorless; during which time, it saw 
its darkest hours. During this interval, in 1833, the 
great blow fell, disestablishment. After this there was 
no more taxation for the church. 

Democracy had gained, a vote for every man regard- 
less of his creed. The Baptists had first won their own 
citizenship through their certificates. The act of 1833 



BOOK VI. WINNING DEMOCRACY 117 

was general. Citizenship was conferred upon every self- 
supporting male of proper age. 

But it was not without a kick that the old order died. 
Riots followed the act of disestablishment. The late Dea- 
con Richard Clapp was eyewitness to a riot in Montague 
the latter part of January, 1834. January 16, a warrant 
had been posted calling for a meeting, to see if the town 
would tear down the meetinghouse — What a strange propo- 
sition ! The First church was sore and without a minister, 
while the Unitarian and Episcopalian factions had united 
in sitting under the preaching of the Rev. Rodolphus Dick- 
inson. There were fears on the other side that they would 
get the house at last as they had in several of the sur- 
rounding towns. Before town meeting day there was a 
general turn-out of the Orthodox faction, impatient to do 
something. "I remember," says Deacon Clapp, "among 
them was Elijah Root (Deacon Root, his brother, was on 
the other side). I remember seeing Joshua Marsh and 
others undermining the church. Joshua took a crowbar 
and striking it into the side of the building said : ' Let in the 
light.' The whole building was razed to the ground." 

When the citizens met on the spot, the 30th, they passed 
the following vote: "voted, the meeting house having 
been pulled down, and the weather being rather cold, to 
adjourn to Thomas C. Lord's hall." That was in the 
Tavern, now known as Montague Hotel. A vote of censure 
succeeded in passing upon the mob. B. S. Wells, Col. 
Aretas Ferry and John Brooks were chosen a committee to 
report on the question of the town's claims against the 
members of the mob. On February 17, the report was 
h eard , accepted . and the committee was dischar ged . Then 
it seems to have been evident that the mob was too many 
and determined, to punish, without civil war. It is hard 



118 



HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 



for one-half of a people to collect damages from the other 
half, particularly where the division comes in one's own 
family. The meeting silently adjourned. 

The following year, 1835, the Unitarians with the aid 
of Episcopalians, built the "White Church," west of the 
common. The Orthodox, consisting of Henry Gunn and 
sixteen others built the brick church from clay dug "on 
Deacon Bardwell's lot," "the Thaxter Shaw place," now 
owned by the Rev. G. W. Solley. 




Book VII '+ Causes and Conduct of 
the Revolution 

HOW democracy within the town community was 
hatched out of Congregationalism, Anabaptism first 
cracking the long incubated shell, and Unitarianism scoop- 
ing out at last the peeping, struggling chick and letting 
him run free in the sunshine, I have told in the last book. 
The growth was so gradual that it took them a hundred 
years in England to discover our "sea change." But 
when they found it, there was trouble. What was nature 
in the democratic independency of our people, they took 
for impudence and presumption. It was not the burden 
of a few pennies more or less tax on tea and " W. I." goods 
that caused the Revolution. It was the custom of Monta- 
gue's building bridges, schoolhouses, townhalls, highways, 
and all internal improvements, of salarying their minis- 
ters and schoolmasters and political representatives in the 
General Court and taxing themselves, all without any as- 
sistance or advice from the king's government, and by a 
system of town leagues and intercolonial cooperation wag- 
ing war against their enemies alone for a century. These 
habits were against imperial pretensions. By the end of 
the French wars the last link of national union of the thir- 
teen colonies was being forged. W T ith Canada suppressed, 
King George saw here a source of wealth. He also became 
suddenly conscious of the wonderful political institutions 
that had silently grown up from English seed in the fresh 
soil — conscious, that is, as blockheads become conscious. 
If he lacked any knowledge, William Pitt and Edmund 






120 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Burke supplied him with information. They had made 
a thorough and profound study of America. 

In 1765, the English Parliament passed the "Stamp 
Act," putting a tax upon American imports to be adminis- 
tered by English officials, a portion of it spent on the 
colonies and the rest taken over to England like booty or 
tribute from a conquered country. Every valley and hill- 
top of New England instantly flamed up with hot resent- 
ment. They were almost free amongst themselves. And 
now they suddenly awoke to realize that "in his Majesty's 
reign" had become in their documents and records but a 
slender phrase, with no reality in it for them. And now 
the last tie was severed. Independence of foreign lords 
and foreign armies was now all the cry. 

The Declaration of Independence speaks of the right to 
institute "new governments." Nothing of the kind, how- 
ever, was done in New England. New Englanders began 
the Revolution not to institute reforms and changes in 
the order of things, but to save the institutions and cus- 
toms that already had become old and venerable with 
them; and were new only to a few stupid Englishmen a 
hundred and fifty years behind the times, who got the 
king's ear; and found him like themselves. We did not 
change our government, by rebellion; we saved what we 
had, before this, won. 

Six general crimes against our democratic customs on 
the part of the king are mentioned in the Declaration : he 
had tampered with our laws; interfered with our process 
of legislation; interrupted our courts in their work; insti- 
tuted arbitrary and expensive provincial government; 
then to punish us for protest, left us without any; and 
ended by quartering an army upon us to eat us up and 
tread us down. The point is that it was too late for the 



BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 121 

king to change anything here. Our habits and our hearts 
were set, during those generations of poverty and struggle, 
when England little cared whether we lived or died; and 
loyalty to the crown was just a sentiment of home-turning 
English hearts. Our customs and laws were the habit of 
life triumphing over the wilderness and lurking death. 
The king could cut off our heads, but he could not change 
these. We could not change them if we would. What- 
ever doubtful theories may be embodied in the Declara- 
tion, the closing sentence was the statement of a scientific, 
historical fact and not of a theory or a dream: " These are 
and ought to be free and independent states." 

The Townshend Act followed the "Stamp Act" in 1767. 
This contained the famous tea tax. It was another at- 
tempt to collect tribute. A part of the proceeds was to 
hire for us imported governors and judges responsible to 
the king and not under our laws; also crown attorneys and 
a royal army; and to pension the king's colonial minions. 
The people of Montague and sister commonwealths, the 
two hundred republics of Massachusetts and the hundreds 
more in the rest of New England, so rooted and grounded 
in minding their own business, from selecting the color of 
paint on the village schoolhouse to the conquest of Canada, 
were expected to look on at the expensive royal show, pay 
the bills and be thankful. What fatuity! The king lit- 
tle guessed the thoughts and the grit of men who held 
their heads up through the direst poverty and destitution 
and took moments between times, in ten years, to build 
a wooden meetinghouse; and "built it workmanlike." 
Fush ! on your royal show, King George and Lord North ! 
Our colonels and deacons were getting a little forehanded 
now; and they knew just what they were going to do with 
their money. They were going to build schools and col- 



122 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

leges, canals and water mills; they were going to dam the 
wild streams and build intercolonial post roads and turn- 
pikes; and send ships trading round the world. The cry 
went up instantly from Virginia to Massachusetts: "No 
taxation without representation." 

Two English regiments in the fall of 1768 were sent to 
Boston to enforce the Townshend act. Boston braced 
herself for resistance. All the towns of Massachusetts 
were invited to meet her at Fanueil Hall. On Wednesday, 
September 21, 1768, the people of Montague promptly 
assembled at their meetinghouse and chose Doctor Moses 
Gunn to represent the town at this proposed convention. 
Dr. Gunn was our Samuel Adams, our spokesman through- 
out the Revolution, a man with eloquent command of the 
English language and tireless self-sacrificing zeal for demo- 
cratic administration of our institutions. 

In August, 1772, a severe blow was struck at Massa- 
chusetts in a more direct way. There came an imperial 
order that henceforth all judges should be paid by the 
crown. Samuel Adams came forward with a scheme to 
meet this new device of oppression, a plan of agitation by 
letter, a sort of round robin parliament to reach every 
intelligent man in the Province, and constitute the whole 
population a perpetual Provincial Congress. April 6, 
1773, there was a town meeting in Montague to hear about 
the plan. It was "voted to choose as a Committee of Cor- 
respondence, Moses Gunn, Moses Harvey, Elisha Allis, 
Stephen Tuttle, Peter Bishop, Judah Wright and Na- 
thaniel Gunn, Jr. The meeting adjourned to April 20 at 
one o'clock to receive the report of the committee, in reply 
to the efforts of the town of Boston. The following letter, 
the composition of Doctor Moses Gunn, was read "in 
very full meeting." And when the doctor laid down the 



BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 123 

paper on the table, the citizens called enthusiastically to 
hear it read through again. It is a remarkable docu- 
ment, in the main, clear cut in its language and decisive 
in tone; and it has imbedded within it the principles of self- 
government underlying the New England town meeting 
and the constitution of the United States as afterwards 
defined: 

" To the Committee of Correspondence of the Town of 
Boston, Gentlemen: — Having carefully perused your pam- 
phlet of the 20 of November last, containing a statement 
of the rights of the colonists, with the infringement on 
those rights (which came to us about three months after 
publication), we are of the opinion that you have, in gen- 
eral, justly stated our rights as men, as Christians, and as 
subjects. As Christians, we have a right to worship God 
according to the dictates of conscience owing all religious 
obedience to Him who hath declared that his kingdom is 
not of this world. As men, and as subjects, we have a 
right to life, liberty and property. These we have as 
our natural birthright, being descended from those re- 
nowned ancestors, who crossed the Atlantic at their own 
expense; purchased the soil of the natives, and who with 
their successors have ever defended it with treasure and 
blood; confirmed in the right ample manner by the royal 
charters whereby the people of the Province have the sole 
and absolute property of the soil, in fee simple, with all 
the appurtenances — waters, rivers, mines, etc., except only 
of the part of gold and silver ore reserved to the crown. 
As to infringement on our rights, we do not pretend fully 
to understand the power of vice nominalty courts, but 
that there is so great a difference made between subjects 
entitled to the same liberties and immunities within the 
colonies as in the Realm [of England herself] as there 



124 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

appears to be, affords matter of conviction that [a repre- 
sentative government with local legislative bodies inter- 
spersed] is their only security against impartiality and 
injustice; and that a Parliament at three thousand miles 
distance can never have an equitable right to bind colonies 
in all cases whatever. That the commissioners of the 
customs, or any set of men known or unknown, in our 
charter, should have general warrants to search houses, 
shops, chests, etc., is illegal, and hath been publicly de- 
clared to be so within the Realm [of England herself] in 
the great case between John Wilkes, Esq., and the Earl 
of Halifax. . . . 

"We thank the town of Boston for their patriotic zeal 
in the common cause, particularly as their Pamphlets hath 
paved the way for a full discussion of our natural and char- 
ter rights, in the general assembly at their late session, 
whereby much light hath been cast on the subject. We 
reflect with gratitude and pleasure on their learned labor, 
in defence of our just rights, in which they have discovered 
a thorough knowledge of our constitution, and great firm- 
ness in defense of it. 

"Gentlemen, we look upon the particular occasion of 
your letter to be very alarming to every sensible lover of 
his country. We acknowledge the activity and vigilance 
of the town of Boston. Trusting that salutary and im- 
portant ends to the public good have been and still may 
be answered thereby, we consider the infringments on our 
rights stated in the Pamphlets as being what in reason 
and justice ought to give deep concern to every friend of 
his country, and excite his endeavors, in all suitable lawful 
methods, to obtain redress. We hope that the knowledge 
of our natural and constitutional rights may be still 
further propagated among people of all ranks. That the 



BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 125 

natural principle of self preservation may be timely and 
thoroughly awakened and unerringly directed. That a 
criminal and scandalous inattention of indifference to our 
rights may be an infamy never justly charged upon us, 
esteeming a tame submission to slavery more infamous 
than slavery itself." 

After these acts, King George Ill's government deliber- 
ately dared Boston to resist it in defense of the Provincial 
constitution. Three decoy ships of tea were sent into 
Boston harbor. Samuel Adams' men accepted the chal- 
lenge and almost instantly fed the tea out to the fishes 
of the Bay. The king was also ready and closed Boston 
port. Boston appealed to the Province; and received 
solid backing for her prompt acts. 

A "non-consumption covenant" was put before the 
Montague people, June 27, 1774. This was in response to 
a recommendation of the House of Representatives sitting 
at Salem June 17, as a means further to baffle the English 
attempts to collect tribute. Dr. Gunn, Stephen Tuttle, 
Eliphalet Allis, John Gunn, and Samuel Bardwell were 
chosen a committee to give the matter mature considera- 
tion and report July 7. The committee presented a docu- 
ment going more fully into the condition of the provinces 
than was done in the document of the previous year. The 
important points of this report may be summed up in 
six resolutions: 

1. We approve of the plan for a Continental Congress 
September 1, at Philadelphia. 

2. We urge the disuse of India teas and British goods. 

3. We will act for the suppression of pedlers and petty 
chapmen (supposably vendors of dutiable wares) . 

4. And work to promote American manufacturing. 

5. We ought to relieve Boston. 



126 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

6. We appoint the 14th day of July, a day of humilia- 
tion and prayer. 

Just one week after the solemn fast, the citizens signed 
quite generally the following non-consumption agreement : 

"That, from henceforth, we will suspend all commerical 
intercourse with the island of Great Britain until this act 
of blocking up the harbor of Boston be repealed, and a 
restoration of our charter rights be obtained. 

"That there may be the less temptation to others to 
engage in the said dangerous commerce, we do in like 
manner solemnly covenant that we will not knowingly 
purchase or consume in any manner whatever any goods, 
wares or merchandise which shall arrive in America from 
Great Britain, from and after the first day of August next 
ensuing." 

In the preamble of this agreement it was asserted: 
"There is no alternative between the horrors of slavery 
and the carnage of civil war." 

On September 20, the district "voted to procure, as a 
town stock, 56 pounds of powder, 112 pounds of lead, and 
a sufficient number of flints, to be paid for out of sale of 
commons." 

On November 8, it was voted to raise and appropriate 
the "Province rate," concurring with the advice of the 
Provincial Congress, which met October 11, at Concord; 
and adjourned to Cambridge October 17. 

December 5, it was voted to pay Doctor Gunn four 
pounds nine shillings and sixpence for services and ex- 
penses at the Congress at Cambridge; and three pounds 
ten shillings and eightpence as representative this year at 
the General Court. It was voted also to choose a com- 
mittee to execute the agreement of the Continental Con- 
gress, which had duly met in September, and adopted 



BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 127 

and forwarded to the king a "Declaration of Rights," 
which the delegates agreed in behalf of their respective 
provinces to defend. Moses Gunn was again returned to 
the Provincial Congress to meet at Cambridge February 5, 
1775. Six pounds was raised and appropriated to organize 
minutemen at sixpence a half day for training. 

The following company of minutemen was then organ- 
ized. This was the same company that responded to the 
alarm of April 19 in connection with the battle of Lexing- 
ton. They marched in the regiment of Colonel Samuel 
Williams of Warwick. Captain, Thomas Grover; Lieu- 
tenants, John Adams and Josiah Adams; Sergeants, Philip 
Ballard, Simeon King, Asa Fuller and Josiah Burnham; 
Drummer, Elisha Phillips; Privates, Elisha Wright, David 
Sprague, Til Borthrick, Henry Ewers, Elias Sawyer, Wm. 
Allis, Asa Smith, Joel Perkins, Jonathan Harvey, Moses 
Brooks, Uriah Weaks, John Brooks, Samuel Smith, Samuel 
Bardwell, Thomas Whiting, David Burnham, Nathaniel 
Nichols, Reuben Granby, Joshua Combs, Joseph Combs, 
Elisha Trizel, Joshua Searls, Zedodiah Allis, John Ewers, 
Moses Harvey. 

Three days later, April 22, a second company was 
mustered for the same regiment, and consisted of Conway 
and Montague men. The following were from Mon- 
tague: Asahel Gunn, David Patteson, Ezra Smead, Rufus 
Smith, Elijah Smith, Ebenezer Grover, Samuel Gunn, 
Samuel Taylor, Ebenezer Marsh, Caleb Benjamin, 
Elisha Clap, Ira Scott, Nathaniel Taylor, Joshua Gawse 
(Goss), Joel Adams, Samuel Larence, Salvenus Sartel, 
Daniel Baker, Simeon Cox. 

The day this company was mustered, it was voted to 
send an ox wagon loaded with flour, pork, peas, tobacco 
and oats. Deacon John Gunn, Lieutenant Nathaniel 



128 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Gunn, and Medad Bardwell were in charge of this; and 
Elisha Wright was paid one pound sixteen shillings for 
carrying the stuff down to Cambridge. 

I may have given the impression that the inhabitants 
of this district (on August 23 of this year 1775 it became 
an incorporated town), were solidly in favor of resistance. 
As a matter of fact there were twenty -three families loyal 
to the imperial government. Before the soldiers marched, 
these Tories were intimidated and confined to their own 
estates; and directed not to leave them without permis- 
sion of the authorities; or be dealt with as traitors. On 
May 26, 1775, it was voted "that all persons called to 
account as inimical to their country shall be notified of 
the allegations brought against them before the time of 
trial and a reasonable time be allowed them to make their 
defence." 

On the same day, Doctor Moses Gunn was chosen as a 
member of the Provincial Congress to meet at Watertown 
the 31st of May. 

The battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17. 
Washington arrived the 2d of July ; and during that sum- 
mer and following winter organized sufficient force and 
means to drive the English from Boston in the early 
spring. The Declaration of Independence followed in 
July, 1776. Then came Washington's successful man- 
euvers against Howe in New York and the wonderful 
winter campaign in New Jersey; and then the summer 
campaign of 1777, crushing Burgoyne on the Hudson; and 
Valley Forge, misery and victory, stars and stripes flying, 
money all gone. Congress recommended war taxes, but 
had no power as yet to assess them. December 30, 1777, 
Montague " voted to choose a committee to provide for the 
continental soldiers agreeable to a late act of Congress." 



BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 129 

On January 27, 1778, the Articles of Confederation, 
recently adopted by Congress, were debated here. It was 
"voted to approve of the Articles, except the first clause," 
giving Congress the power to declare peace and war. 
This it was resolved, "belongs to the people." There is 
food for reflection in this resolution. The Revolutionary 
war would never have been fought if it had been put to 
the vote of England and the thirteen colonies ; for as John 
Fiske says: "In that struggle the people of England were 
not our enemies." Most wars, just like the war of the 
Revolution, result from the schemes of some powerful 
group of parasites like King George and his minions. 

A committee of correspondence had been chosen 
March 10, 1777, consisting of Deacon John Gunn, Dr. 
Moses Gunn and Sargeant Nathaniel Smith. A commit- 
tee of inspection and safety consisted of Captain Asahel 
Gunn, Lieutenants Benjamin and Keet and Stephen Tut- 
tle. Treachery was feared, perhaps from the Tories; for 
it was resolved "That the governor ought not to allow 
town dwellers to remain drinking in their houses after 
nine o'clock without some special business." 

April 9, it was voted that all inhabitants but soldiers 
"should take the small pox in the natural way." 

We have heard even in our day the phrase, " not worth 
a continental." April 24, 1778, it took twenty shillings 
continental money, or nearly $3.50 to buy a pair of stock- 
ings. On that date, at that price, Montague provided 
for her 23 soldiers then in the field; also shoes at $6.00; 
and shirting at $1.50 a yard. May 18, 1778, five new 
soldiers had to be fitted out at a cost of $7.00 for a shirt 
and $11.00 for a pair of shoes. Serious efforts were made 
by the people here and elsewhere to regulate prices. A 
convention was held for this purpose at Concord in 1777; 



130 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

but Montague voted not to send a delegate. Another 
was held at Northampton and a list of prices was recom- 
mended to the Hampshire towns; but Montague again 
voted not to concur with the recommendations. It tran- 
spired, however, that there was great inequality of prices. 
And so finally, March 7, 1777, "to prevent monopoly and 
oppression," it was voted to establish the prices of twenty- 
three necessary commodities, including labor wages for 
mowing and harvesting. But judging from the soaring 
of prices the following year, as noted above, it does not 
appear that this regulation of prices had much effect. 

December 21, 1778, the five selectmen, besides being 
assessors and overseers of the poor, were also made a 
committee of correspondence, safety and inspection. 

February 9, 1779, two soldiers were added to the home 
guard, each receiving thirty pounds bounty. Four more 
were raised for the front; were assigned one hundred and 
twenty pounds bounty; and reported at Springfield. The 
money was subscribed and loaned by the citizens of the 
town. 

October, 1779, there is a record of eight soldiers re- 
ceiving forty pounds each from the town: Noah Barnes, 
Joel Benjamin, Asa Fuller, James Winston, Ephraim 
Whitney, Simeon King, John Clapp, Jonathan Marsh. 

June 20, 1780, the town offered two hundred pounds 
bounty for six months' volunteers. No one volunteered, 
and a committee had to be appointed to hire the soldiers. 
But none could be found. June 27 the town raised the 
bounty to three hundred pounds, and three pounds a month 
pay, in silver or grain. These terms brought forward 
nine men, who were mustered into the continental army. 
One hundred and fifty pounds, and three pounds a month, 
was offered men for the militia service. Two more men 



BOOK VII. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 131 

presented themselves for the continental service. It was 
voted, "that, as there is necessity for the two men to 
march on Friday next, the selectmen and clerk shall pay 
the bounties at Lieutenant Gunn's, on that day at ten 
o'clock, and that Sergeant Josiah Burnham attend them 
to South Hadley to see them mustered and take receipts of 
them from the superintendent." 

October 18, 1780, one hundred and eight pounds was 
paid for 3600 pounds of beef for the soldiers. On the 
same date seven volunteers were called for. None could 
be had. The recruiting committee was increased. Still 
soldiers were not found. This was the gloomiest period 
of the war. It took now $150 in continentals to buy a 
bushel of corn and $2000 for a suit of clothes. Volunteers 
were not tempted by the offer of any amount of it. The 
fighting spirit of '76 had all oozed out. To complete the 
misery, even Benedict Arnold, who had done so much to 
destroy Burgoyne's army, now sold out to the enemy. 
January 10, 1781, it was directed, "that the committee 
invite men to meet them next Monday night and state 
their own terms of service." This was just one week 
before the tide of the Revolution suddenly turned. It 
was the darkest hour before dawn. On the 17th, General 
Morgan won the battle of Cowpens, which started Corn- 
wallis on his last retreat to Yorktown. 

January 24, it was voted to offer three years' men 
twenty yearling heifers or steers, if they remain one year 
in service; twenty neat cattle two years old, if they remain 
two years; twenty, three years old, for three years. It 
does not appear that there was any response. The war 
was being pushed in the South, and Southerners were now 
doing the fighting. In July, three months' men were still 
called for; but I do not know with what result. But early 



132 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

in September, Benedict Arnold was sent to burn New 
London, Connecticut, in order if possible to cause Wash- 
ington to waver from his swift drawing in upon Yorktown. 
But Washington staked all upon gathering in Cornwallis' 
army. And New England felt a revival of '76, to rush 
to the defense of Connecticut. September 17, 1781, 
" voted that soldiers detached to the defense of Connecti- 
cut be paid twenty shillings extra in case of marching." 
Arnold's feat, however, proved a mere feint. Cornwallis 
surrendered the 19th of October. 

Samuel D. Bard well recollected in 1895 that some time 
in the 40's he took a Justice of the Peace Commission so 
that he might make out pension papers for the then sur- 
viving Revolutionary soldiers of Montague. These were 
his grandfather, Samuel Bardwell, Moses Andrews, Elisha 
Tilden, Joel Shepard, Salmon Gunn, and Ebenezer Whit- 
ney. Mrs. Lyman Gunn remembers the curiosity she had 
"to see the silver dollars the pension man brought the 
widow of Eli Gunn (brother of Captain Asahel) who made 
her home with us." 

Other lists of Revolutionary soldiers of Montague 
doubtless can be found by searching. But here is enough 
to make the old times reality to us; the men, flesh and 
blood. No man can ponder this record of citizen and 
soldier, and say that our liberties happened. Our demo- 
cratic constitution was in fact a long slow growth, not a 
sudden erratic thought. Its preservation from the dan- 
gers that threatened it in the 60 's and 70's of the eight- 
eenth century, was an all but impossible task. I have 
traced with you in the case of a single town, five or six 
miles square in the wilderness, how it was done; how the 
men there gave their means, their lives and their sacred 
honor. 



Book VIII + The Kings Highway 

THE pioneers used for bridle roads those sinuous paths 
that followed the dry edge of every valley. Accord- 
ing to Deacon Richard Clapp, "the first road from Sun- 
derland (unquestionably following the Indian path) came 
by the 'Back street' along the slopes at the foot of Toby. 
Reaching a point due east from the Whitmores it struck 
a little northwest where there is now an abandoned road, 
and came out on the present North Sunderland road at 
the top of the hill south of the Deacon Marsh place. 
Thence it ran up past Hamilton Smith's, past Day's, across 
Taylor hill, past Taylor's, straight past the Eli Gunn 
(Liberty Wright) place, and across the present easterly 
and westerly road, down a lane where I drove cows ; thence 
past the Daniel Rowe place (F. Lyman's) forded the 
Sawmill river; thence northeasterly and past the present 
railroad station, but considerably south of it. South of 
the Deacon Armstrong place there is a run westerly of 
the new graveyard; thence it ran along the present road 
easterly from Warren Bardwell's across Pond brook; 
thence it turned northeasterly near Ben Tilden's old house 
and ran on high ground to the top of Goddard's hill; ran 
north of his house. The road went across the Plain to the 
mouth of Miller's river, where there was at an early day 
a tavern, afterwards occupied by Durkee." Deacon Clapp 
also says, "Contemporary with this line of road from 
Sunderland by way of Taylor hill was a road from the 
Back street, leaving it where the road ran to Deacon 
Marsh's, northeasterly of the Gunn tavern (now E. P. 



134 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Gunn's); thence it continued easterly across the present 
Leverett road to the Billings mill. This was a terminus 
for persons going to the sawmill and grist mills (provided 
here as soon as Sunderland was inhabited in 1714). It 
stretched north across the Sawmill river at the southeast 
corner of Gunn's sugar orchard not far westerly from the 
Billings mill; thence bearing more to the right it ran just 
north on high ground and entered Federal street by the 
'Jew place '; thence it ran along the present Federal street 
to the top of Goddard's hill, there joining the other road 
at the end of Harvey's path." 

Harvey's path was named for Moses Harvey, one of 
Montague's most romantic characters, who lived on the 
site of the George Gilbert place. It reached from the 
turning in place, north of the Swamp road and between 
Pond brook and Ben Tilden's, to the top of Goddard's 
hill. 

Federal street was first called Country road, but must 
have received its present name soon after the Revolution- 
ary war, and is a noble memorial of its inhabitants who 
were in favor of the Constitution of the United States, 
which established us a nation, on September 17, 1787. Of 
the interesting habitations on these old roads I may speak 
in a second volume of Montague history, entitled Mon- 
tague Homesteads. Deacon Clapp said of the locality : " In 
the early days, Federal street, (or Country road) was 
really a center. The place between Federal street and 
the village, however, was a great swamp — nothing but a 
morass. And there was much difficulty in getting over 
to 'Scotland' and back. I remember my grandfather 
telling how he sometimes used to jump from log to log in 
making his way across the swamp." 

Hartford was the market for the farmers in the summer 



BOOK VIII. THE KINGS HIGHWAY 135 

by way of the river from "Taylor's landing"; and Boston 
in the winter. The practice of teaming to Boston for the 
sale of produce and bringing back rum and foreign goods, 
continued through a hundred years, until the completion 
of the railroad. One of the early thoroughfares accord- 
ingly was the old County road over Dry* hill. This was 
our "Bay path," to borrow a name from another distin- 
guished Boston road, to the valley. This was the only 
route for more than fifty years, until the road was opened 
by way of Grout's corner and Miller's river. At the 
Country road junction of the County road stood the old 
tavern near the site of George D. Payne's buildings. 
There were once sixteen inhabited farms between that 
place and Dry hill schoolhouse. It was a thickly settled 
mountain road. Now crumbling chimney stacks or mere 
depressions in the turf mark more than half the places of 
dwellings. The names of thirteen householders on this 
road remained on a county map of 1858. Beginning above 
Severance's tavern, there were: J. Tuttle. S. B. Bardwell, 
J. S. Ward, B. Gage, L. Allen, D. A. and A. Benjamin, 
A. Thornton, X. Grover. E. Scott. E. Pike. H. Heard, 
E. Steadman, and 0. Payne. And Josiah Prescott in 1811 
lived next the Wendell line. The first settlements on 
this road were made in 1738. One month of school was 
provided for the community in 1757. And in 1792 the 
Rev. Judah Nash's salary was divided in proportion be- 
tween the center and this settlement to maintain local 
preaching. It was the most thickly settled road leading 
out of Montague. Some of the houses must have been 
quite fine. Not a few of the good old families lived and 
prospered there. A few of the old chimneys and hearth- 
stones, still in place, are eloquent of good old times and 
substantial personalities. One house, till recently stand- 



136 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

ing on the hill crest, north of the school, was a model of 
workmanship, such as our earlier builders delighted in; 
and it was a gem of architectural proportions. It sat 
there gracefully ten years ago, like a castle in the air, above 
the romantic scenery of the Pequoig valley, the last 
tattered figment of a passing dream. In the reign of the 
Georges, when the presence of human homes, the lively 
traffic of the road and the surpassing glories of scenery 
united there, our Bay path was a truly royal road. Spring- 
ing from Federal street at Severance's tavern into the hills, 
it soon winds along the banks of Goddard's brook, high 
above it, a pure brook, which when in flood, resounds 
amongst the pines like the voice of an organ. A laby- 
rinth of wooded hills and crags seem to lift one into a 
sanctuary as one climbs. The tiny intervales in cups of 
the hills and the hillside farms are miracles of verdure; 
and, in June, of color of wild flowers. The air is heaven's 
own. After an hour's climb amongst these sweet in- 
timacies of nature, a distant world of mountains and val- 
leys sprinkled with farmhouses bursts from the blue rift 
between the tree tops and the sky. It is a beautiful 
road, every foot of it — and the cream is on top. The brow 
of the hill, northwest from the traveled road by the school- 
house, is sublime, nearly a thousand feet above the waters 
of the Miller's river. 

The main county road north and south, ran from the 
Center, west of Great pond and Grassy pond, to the mouth 
of Miller's river, and on to Northfield. This was a dis- 
tinguished thoroughfare, " much used by people who travel 
up and down the river," as we learn from an old petition 
for the annexation of land north of the old Sunderland 
line to the Miller's river, known as Irving's land, in 1768. 
The county built a bridge over Miller's river at a very 



BOOK VIII. THE KING'S HIGHWAY 137 

early date, to accommodate the travel and traffic between 
Hadley and the lower river towns and Northfield, and the 
regions beyond. On the 6th of March, 1774, a bridge which 
had been maintained for some years by the county at the 
mouth of Miller's river was carried away by a sudden rise 
of the river. The towns of Montague and Northfield 
petitioned the state to grant one hundred pounds to help 
rebuild it. It was stated that this was "in one of the 
greatest roads of the Province;" and further, "that it is 
in the great carrying place on Connecticut river, which if 
passed on the west side is twelve miles in length and Deer- 
field river to be crossed, but on the east side about six miles 
and the road vastly better; and every article that goes 
up the river, must be carried here; the river, by reason of 
the falls and rapids, being impassable with any vessel." 
From this and other information we learn that a vast 
traffic went overland through Montague from Taylor's 
landing, near the present Boston and Maine railroad, and 
from Bardwell's landing on the R. N. Oakman place, 
across Miller's plain to the French King rapids, above 
Miller's river. When Montague annexed the Irving lands 
in 1770, there were already families settled along the great 
road and in its locality. The rest of the land was to be 
sold at auction and settled within three years. Ten addi- 
tional houses had to be built, each at least 18 feet either 
dimension, seven foot stud. And each family must agree 
to cultivate five acres of land. There was undoubtedly 
a tavern of long time standing, at the mouth of the river 
and probably the sawmill. There are hints of there hav- 
ing some time been a ford before the bridge. But fording 
the Miller's river at this point, even in low water, must 
have been next to Indian fighting, difficult and dangerous. 
The second road going east was the Road Town (Shutes- 



138 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

bury) road. Direct access to Federal street having been 
won by a bridge at the Mile swamp in 1756, a road was 
laid around Harvey hill to Gunn's brook, in the North 
Leverett gorge, in 1762. 

The next concern was to improve the passage to Deer- 
field. In 1766, a road was sought out down the bank at 
"David Ballard's ferry place." Later this was "Cobb's," 
then " Clesson's ferry " and is now known as " Rice's ferry." 
A number of prominent families lived in this vicinity, 
amongst whom were the Wellses and the Shepards. 

On a map of 1794, surveyed by Elisha Root, there is a 
county road running from the center (the present Turners 
Falls road) to " Bissel's ferry," near the upper suspension 
bridge. This was the road to Factory village and Ber- 
nardston. At the same period, "Tinney's ferry" at Bard- 
well's landing gave another short line between Northfield 
and Deerfield via the Montague plain route. 

The Turnpike, running from Greenfield to Athol, crossed 
the Plain from Montague City, north of Willis hill and 
along the present state road, which before 1799 was known 
as "the new county road," to distinguish from the Dry 
hill route east. "The Fifth Massachusetts Turnpike Cor- 
poration" was chartered March 1, 1799, to open this new 
route to Boston. This company built the first bridge at 
Montague City; and opened it with great ceremony and 
speechmaking November 2, 1802. This bridge was swept 
away by a flood in 1824. It was replaced in 1826, and 
the new one partially destroyed by flood in July, 1828; and 
in August before it could be repaired, it was totally 
wrecked by another flood. In 1842, the bridge was again 
badly damaged. In 1810 the mail coach was leaving 
Greenfield over this route at 1 p. m. every Saturday and 
arriving in Boston Monday forenoon. The fare was $3.00. 



BOOK VIII. THE KING'S HIGHWAY 139 

In 1810, there were two stages a week and doing better 
time, starting at 3 a. m. and arriving the evening of the 
same day. In 1824, there were three stages a week. 
Martin Grout kept tavern at Miller's river for many years, 
on the turnpike line. Here were the first drinks out of 
Greenfield, going east ; and on the return trip travelers, at 
one time, spent the night here, getting into Greenfield in 
the morning. A Worcester man, traveling this way in 
1833, describes (in a letter which has been preserved) a 
night spent at this old tavern. He was impressed with 
the cleanliness and order of the house, plainly not expect- 
ing to find either; and spent most of his time reading an 
elegantly bound and printed translation of the Scriptures 
by the Rev. Rodolphus Dickinson, Rector of Trinity 
Church, Montague, " one of the most obscure towns in the 
Connecticut valley," adds the reader. He was humor- 
ously affected by the great flourish of scholarship and 
learned notes of this version. The diction appealed to him 
as deliciously pedantic. He quotes a sample from the 
story of St. Paul and his accusers. "Much learning hath 
made thee mad," is rendered, "The multiplicity of thy 
engagements hath demented thee." The merit the trans- 
lator claims for his edition is that he has tried to put the 
Scriptures into modern phrase that may be most readily 
understood. The traveler says he started several times 
to steal the book. Warren Bardwell showed me a copy 
of the book a number of years ago. The incident serves 
chiefly to show how times have changed on the king's 
highway. Then Millers Falls was a Johnsonesque trans- 
lation of the New Testament's length from Greenfield; 
and now is a short twenty minutes' ride. 

In December, 1815, Montague voted to join with other 
towns for a mail route from Hartford to Walpole, New 



140 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Hampshire. Captain Spencer Root, Elijah Root and Colo- 
nel Wells were the Montague agents in this matter. 

Traveling by stagecoach had its drawbacks and its beau- 
ties not associated with modern methods of travel. The 
exposure to climate in a huddled coach with all sorts and 
conditions of people is realized when you think of add- 
ing a case of smallpox amongst the passengers, as once 
occurred near here. Coming out of Greenfield the trav- 
eler was confronted first by the turbulent river with its 
record of capsized ferryboats and broken bridges and 
drownings. This safely passed, there were nine miles of 
desert stretching away before him with its sad looking 
tufts of sand grass and thorny areas of scrub oak inter- 
spersed with yellow pine. If it were August the open 
vistas, of course, were covered with golden-rod, which 
burned under the midday sun like a firmament of brass. 
Or if in June, one could half close one's eyes while thorough- 
braces rocked one up and down over the wastes, and 
imagine an occasional clump of blossoming locusts, the 
enchanted islands wafting down incense and drowsy music, 
the vibration of thousands of insect wings. In early May 
one could just rest on the Sabbath whiteness of the shad 
blossoms that filled every thicket. If, however, one 
journeyed in winter as I did the first time I struck Miller's 
plain, twenty-two years ago, an Arctic solitude with biting 
winds, one might with Dr. Coy, who had crossed this 
"no-man's-land" hundreds of times in an open sleigh, 
thank God at the Plain's end that one was alive. But if it 
were in the full flood of spring, and acres here and there 
were turned up fresh for corn, and the blackbirds chit- 
tered by thousands on the dwarf oak thicket, just opening 
a million pink lips to the sun, and Kunckwadchu stood 
up to the south like a sapphire palace of the new spirit of 



BOOK VIII. THE KINGS HIGHWAY 141 

the earth — then one would be certain to visit the place 
again in a dream. 

The King's highway in Montague was liberally pro- 
vided with taverns. Besides the "tavern in the town," 
kept at a very early date by Joseph Root, there was Gunn's 
tavern of 1726 on the Sunderland and Hartford road below 
the mill. There was Severance's tavern on the old Wen- 
dell and Boston road, and Gunn's, afterwards Grout's on 
the new Boston turnpike. There were Durkee's for boat- 
men on the river road and Taft's further south for the 
traveler north. There was another boatmen's tavern at 
Turners Falls to be spoken of in the next book as well 
as at Montague City and at Bardwell's landing. Kinsley 
kept tavern on the west side of Main street after the 
passing of Root's on Thayer hill, and before the coming 
of Colonel Ferry, Lord, and their numerous successors 
at the historic "Montague Tavern," still the one quaint 
ornament of our village street. 

These taverns, could we but recall them, were like noth- 
ing we have to-day. They were a quaint foreign institu- 
tion, with their vices and their savor of poetry and ro- 
mance. The tavern was a social center, a men's club. 
There was no conscience anywhere in the community 
against drinking; so every man, from the parson and the 
colonel down to the tinker dropped in to take a glass. It 
was where the domestic and foreign news was received 
and digested. It was the one place where prosy people 
broke into merriment and song and spun yarns of human 
delight as they had from immemorial time in Merry Eng- 
land. 

The elements of drink were New England rum, gin and 
beer, which were manufactured by the barkeeper's art, 
with sugar, water and hot irons, into the old-fashioned 



142 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

tavern drinks, "grog," "toddy," "sling," and "flip." 
Grog was a strong mixture of gin or rum and water. 
Toddy was not so strong a mixture, and was sweetened 
and served hot. Sling was sweetened grog. Flip was a 
mixture of either rum, cider or beer and molasses with 
nutmeg and ginger, stirred with a hot iron. 

Round the tavern fire, his imagination a bit heated by 
grog, the boaster gloated over sawing twelve cords of 
wood and the traveler was quizzed about the gossip in 
New Haven and Boston or told the adventures of the road 
to which the old stager added ancient incidents. On 
Sabbath day, in place of furnace heat in the church, the 
men took grog at Deacon Root's or Kinsley's, before, 
between, and after prayers. At election times, the rural 
Brut uses and Catos manufactured their political epigrams 
and doggerels and orated there. The tavern ballad singer 
was the "yellow" newsmonger of that day. "Daniel 
Shays" and "Springfield Mountain" were recited by hun- 
dreds of tavern fires, the one scurrilous, the other maud- 
lin, but full of sound and of quaint conceit. 

Practical jokes were part of tavern life. Thompson, 
in the History of Greenfield, tells of a traveler who halted 
the postrider (who was journeying with him) in the dead of 
night while he went up and roused the inmates of a house. 
A night-capped head showed at a chamber window: 

"Have you lost a knife?" asked the traveler. 

"No, have you found one?" 

"No, but didn't know but I should." (Exit all.) 

Fish stories were popular. A noted fisherman lost his 
boat in shad season. But getting Indian snowshoes he 
safely walked on the backs of the fishes out to his fishing 
rock. Everything wonderful or weird had its place. 
There was a famous witch and fortune.teller by the name of 



BOOK VIII. THE KING'S HIGHWAY 143 

Thacher who lived in the glen, that wonderful glen of Fall 
river, beyond Peskeomskut, who furnished tavern talk. 

Journeying along the king's highway was enlivened by 
contact with wolves, bears and wildcats. Elk, deer and 
moose still roamed in abundance. The town was paying 
$2.00 bounty oh a good many wildcats, in 1811. There 
were wolves here in 1806, and the bounty was $20.00. " In 
the year 1805, two wolves," as related in Judd's History of 
Hadley, "ranged sometime from the northern part of 
Hadley and Amherst to the northern part of Montague, 
and killed many sheep. Men from three or four towns 
turned out after a light snow, and surrounded and killed 
them. One of my informants often heard these wolves 
howl in the woods of North Hadley, and he was in Monta- 
gue when one of them was brought in on a pole by two men. 
The hunters had a merry time," at Kinsley's tavern. 
Welsie Gunn Haskins, born in 1788, in Montague, living 
in Springfield in 1873 told of sitting in the "little brown 
school house" in the village and listening to the wolves 
on Montague plain. 

Highway robbery was not a fine art in New England, 
except in tavern tales. According to these, "Lightfoot 
and Thunderbolt" early in last century had their den 
somewhere in the cavernous mystery of the old Dike's 
mill. And during the Revolutionary period Montague 
had several bands of real counterfeiters. One of these 
harbored in the Dike's mill where traces of their work in 
coin have been found. Often they had their laboratories, 
like the stills of the moonshiners in the South, in the fast- 
nesses of the woods, where the constables tracked them 
by their "smoaks." May 18, 1778, the town voted to 
make good to Elijah Smith certain counterfeit money. Oc- 
tober 18, 1780 counterfeit bills were redeemed of Samuel 



144 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Bard well. May 26, 1781, counterfeit money was re- 
deemed of Jonathan Harvey. Captain Kidd was said 
to have visited the river. And in recent years a copy of 
The Pirates Own Book was dug from an old attic. 

When bridges were down and ways were storm bound, 
then men gathered with the travelers at the taverns, and 
sat out the afternoons and evenings, mug in hand, blink- 
ing in the fire and telling yarns. Some wooden-legged 
survivor of "the old French wars," would be recounting 
every detail, for the hundredth time, of the " bloody morn- 
ing scout;" or some "redeemed captive" rehearsed the 
burning of Deerfield and of the flight of the Indians down 
Champlain, of powwows he had seen in Canada. Per- 
haps one of Rogers' Rangers, Major Richard Montague, 
for instance, dropped in from Long Plain, and told of the 
destruction of St. Francis and his winter flight over the 
White mountains. 

Scurrility and vulgarity there was in plenty. But this 
was hushed when the parson came in for his toddy; or a 
deacon for his flip. Perhaps the deacon grinned over his 
mug at what he heard of the unfinished funny yarn, and 
proceeded, between his leisurely sips and smacks at his 
nutmeg and ginger, to tell some moral tale of Yankee 
thrift and enterprise. I think it was a deacon's tavern 
tale, about the Connecticut man who made nutmegs of 
wood and earned an honest fortune selling them to provin- 
cial housewives. The tale was told half humorously, half 
admiring the wit of the man. For in some such way our 
fathers laid a firm foundation for our modern "captains 
of industry" and horse traders. The deacon loved also 
to tell of the "old fashioned New England boy" whom 
Emerson has thus described: "A sturdy lad from New 
Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the profes- 



BOOK VIII. THE KING'S HIGHWAY 145 

sions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps school, 
preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a 
township, in successive years, and always like a cat falls 
on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He has 
not one chance; he has a hundred chances." This is 
almost a literal biography of J. G. Holland who grew up 
in this county many years ago, and of many another. 
The deacon went out thriftily at the end of an hour, 
smacking his lips from the second or third "bowl of flip," 
advising the boys not to drink over long and to save their 
money. 

The parson also had his type of tavern tale. The most 
popular was one about George Washington, his little 
hatchet and the cherry tree. This was originated by the 
Virginia Parson Weems; but it was told in New England 
until it was worn out. The parson also made Fox's 
Book of Martyrs a popular book of tales by his portrayal 
of the sufferings of John Rogers and his narrative of the 
" Massa-cree of St. Bartholomew." The Spanish Inquisi- 
tion came in also for a share of attention and the delight 
of all English blood, the story of the " Invincible Armada." 
Dropping into local history the story of The Angel of Had- 
ley grew and grew in the parson's telling, how the regicide 
General Goffe (the people supposing he were an angel 
from heaven), came out from his hiding to lead the wor- 
shipers at Hadley meetinghouse to victory against the 
"bloodthirsty and devilish salvages," and then disappeared 
from history. Of course much in these old yarns is pious 
fiction, worth preserving rather than disproving. For 
everything pointed a moral or adorned a tale. 

Soon after January 1, 1344, the tales of the traveler, 
and of the ballad-monger, and the voice of the town crier 
ceased in Montague. The following vote explains the 



146 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

matter: "Resolved that we hail with joy the prospect of a 
speedy consummation of a Great Thoroughfare (Fitch- 
burg Railroad) from the Capital of the Commonwealth to 
the Connecticut river valley through Fitchburg by way 
of the Miller's river, Erving, and Northfield to the line of 
the state of Vermont." The original "Fitchburg" was 
from Fitchburg to Boston. From Fitchburg to Brattlebor- 
ough by way of Millers Falls, it was the "Massachusetts 
and Vermont" railroad. This section reached Grout's 
corner (Millers Falls) in 1848; and next year, Montague 
center; and in 1850, Greenfield. So, for two years, Mon- 
tague and Boston were the two most distinguished com- 
mercial points in the state. Samuel D. Bardwell built 
stores at Grout's and Montague on the line and did a 
large business handling merchandise for this section in- 
cluding towns beyond the river. One of his advertise- 
ments in the Lyceum manuscript paper of the time is 
preserved : 

Eighteen hundred and forty nine — 

Just off the railroad line, 

Old Colony nails, if sold by the cask, 

$4.00 a hundred is all that we ask. 

In 1866, the Amherst and Belchertown railroad was 
extended to Grout's corner, giving us a north and south 
thoroughfare this side the river from tide water to Brattle- 
borough. By this time the last vestige of ancient ways 
of travel, hereabouts, by land and water, had disappeared. 
So silent now are the king's highways and the river, we 
can hardly realize the poetry and life of them that is gone. 
We see the good old times 

pass on and go 
From less to less and vanish into light. 
And the new sun rise, bringing the new year. 



Book IX > The River 

THE river was first noted for its fisheries. Then the 
Indian corn fleet of 1637 was a prophecy of mightier 
commerce that was to come to the river, and make music 
out of industry for about a century. In 1732 began the 
first traffic in ship timber and building lumber down the 
river, which has never ceased. Lumber was brought down 
from Montague and Bernardston in 1772 to build Deacon 
Ebenezer Hunt's house in Northampton. The river be- 
came the greatest highway of commerce in New England. 
In Montague was a section of the first boat canal system 
in the United States. It was on the Connecticut the 
first steamboat was launched (several years before Fulton's 
" Clermont " on the Hudson) by Captain Samuel Morey 
of Orford, New Hampshire, in 1792 or '93. From him and 
his model Fulton directly derived the essential ideas of 
steam navigation. 

I shall first tell of fishing days. For the best account 
we depend upon Josiah D. Canning, the late "Peasant 
Bard" of Turners Falls (Gill side). The old fishermen 
used to say the shad came up from the southern seas in 
the month of May when the shad tree was in bloom; and 
coursing along, they sensed the spring freshets pouring 
down from the land; and were seized of fishy desire to 
climb the falls, and tumble in the sweet and sunny waters. 

Old timers all agree on astonishing tales of the vast 
number of fishes seen and caught along our Montague and 
neighboring shores. Many said, "one could walk on their 
backs across the river" when the shad pressed up the 



U8 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

stream. The salmon were not quite as numerous, but 
were often of immense size. A fisherman slung one by 
the gills on a stick over his shoulder; and as he walked off 
the fish's tail dragged on the ground. When the seines 
were drawn, sometimes as many as two thousand shad 
were taken at one haul, and often a giant salmon or two 
floundering in their midst. As many as five thousand 
fishes have been caught in a day by a solitary scoop net 
fisher. The prize fishing place was Burnham's rock, now 
under water above the Turners Falls dam. The usual 
places of fishing were where the water was most shallow 
or made a descent over rocks. Along the shores of the 
meadows, the day's catch, of different fishermen, was 
stacked like haycocks. And the meadows would be full 
of them, shad at one, two and three pennies to all comers. 
It was a cheap and abundant diet, and got the name of 
"Gill pork," reminding one of the historic codfish known 
as "Cape Cod turkey." Following the shad came the 
"lamprey" eels, clinging with their suckers to the rocks, 
and only less abundant in their season than the shad. 

The fishing season brought a motley crowd, like a 
county fair or a muster, from a wide region, to get a year's 
supply of fish to salt. There "came the gentlemen, the 
bully, and the idler," says Mr. Canning, and engaged in 
all the old time games, trials of strength, leaping, wres- 
tling and the like. But these scenes, interrupted by the 
dams of the Locks and Canal Company, from 1795 on, 
and compromised for a time by building fishways, came 
to an end by the building of the present Holyoke dam in 
1849. The salmon had not been seen much after 1800. 
A lawsuit was brought; the fishermen got "fair damages," 
but no more fish. The whole story is told again by Mr. 
Canning in not unpleasing rhymes: 



BOOK IX. THE RIVER 149 

All in the merry month of May, 
When snowy shad-trees blossomed gay 
To tell the fisherman the time 
When fish were plentiful and prime; — 

All in the merry month of May, 
Where Turner's pouring waters play, 
And lash and dash, and roar and bray, 
Were wont to gather there and then, 
Fishers of shad and not of men. 



All in the merry month of May, 

Back many years on time's highway, 

Upon old-time "election day," 

I've heard gray-bearded worthies say, 

Not only fishermen, so wet, 

With sweeping seine and scooping net, 

But other folk would muster there, 

As now they gather at a fair. 

From all the region round about 

They came, the gentleman and lout; 

The yeoman, whose spring work was done, 

Resolved to have one day of fun; 

The peddler, with his gewgaws fine, 
And ballads dog'rel, not divine; 
The bully of the country-side, 
In all the swell of hero pride; 
The gamester who was skilled to know 
The science of a lucky throw; 
The loafer, whose "chief end of man" 
Was "Go it, cripples, while you can; " 
The verdant youth from hillside green, 
Come down to see what might be seen 
And treat the dolce whom he led 
To penny-cake and ginger-bread; — 
A motley crowd of beings, wishing 
To see each other and the fishing. 



150 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Now ye who read these truthful rhymes 
And live in these noise-making times, 
When dams and mills and paddle boats 
And other craft the water floats, 
With all their din and cliek-ma-claver, 
Scare off the red-fins of the river, — 
Can scarce conceive what schools of shad 
Made our old fisher fathers glad. 

Their numbers did exceed almost 

The rapt one's countless heavenly host; 

Upon the bottom of the river 

Their fins like leaves were seen to quiver; 

And leaping salmon, though less plenty, 

Were grand as royal one and twenty. 

A single haul would bring ashore 

Some forty, fifty, sixty score; 

The fisher, who the scoop would duck, 

Would get St. Peter's sacred luck; 

A few hours toil, and you might heed 

Shad piled like hay-cocks in a mead. 



The fisher's fire is out ashore; 

The belleying seine is drawn no more; 

No more appears, when hauled to land, 

The silver winrow on the sand; 

No more the merry May days bring 

The jolly old time gathering, 

For all is changed; old scenes are past 

And fading from man's memory fast. 

Since art and commerce rule our river, 

Gone are our finny stores forever. 

Untrammeled nature brings no more 

This bounty to our storied shore. 

In vain ye look, ye watchful wishers! 

Gone and for aye, are fish and fishers. 

The river was in early times, as now, used for floating 



BOOK IX. THE RIVER 151 

down vast quantities of loose logs from the New Hampshire 
forests. The tall pines of New Hampshire were, in special, 
sought by the king for masts for his navy. But the logs 
lodged on the shoals, and the farmers were sued for stop- 
ping them. The farmers in turn sued the lumbermen for 
damaging their meadows. And it has been suggested that 
it was like the famous case of Bullum vs. Boatum in 
which the bull had sunk the neighbor's boat and the boat 
had drowned the farmer's bull. July 11, 1785, and differ- 
ent years afterwards, there appears on the Montague 
records an "inventory of masts and mill logs" lodged on 
"Captain Gunn's island" and other Montague property. 
The mark of each log is given: H, BN, XOX, AX, etc. 
These records were used as evidence in lawsuits. The 
lumbermen eventually found it advisable to "box" and 
"raft" their logs and lumber. 

A raft was an aggregation of logs 40x60 feet. This 
was made up of six smaller sections 13x30, called boxes. 
At the canals and narrows the boxes were "drawn" sepa- 
rately. And the "drawing" was a science, especially over 
the rapids. Shanties were built on the rafts, just as is 
done to-day on some Canadian rivers. Sometimes a cargo 
of smaller lumber was carried on top. Boys, men, women 
and girls flocked to the shore to see the grand procession 
(when the rafts came down in the spring) and listen to the 
jolly singing of the men. With the box sections of boards 
and logs, the rivermen navigated all the lesser falls and 
rapids, taking all sorts of chances with a skill that was 
equal to most occasions. 

T. M. Dewey, formerly of Montague, an old riverman, 
in 1872 published in the Springfield Republican a series of 
personal recollections of river life and of the men. Before 
I have done I shall quote much of it. It is almost as 



152 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

fresh as Homer in its keen sense of nature and love of men 
and the old time glory of the river. 

"Steve Morse was a queer compound of music, mirth 
and metaphysics, of logic, labor, language and loquacity, 
intermixed with a goodly proportion of the social as well 
as the vocal element which is sure to fix itself permanently 
in one's memory. Those who have heard him ring out 
the old song: 

'The sea, the sea, the open sea,' 

on the soft evening air, as they floated by, while every 
man sat upon his oar, and not a ripple on the stream, 
while the gentle moon looked down . . . will never for- 
get how it echoed and reechoed among the mountains and 
through the groves." One time this Steve Morse had a 
lot of rafts waiting to go through the locks at Turners 
Falls. It would cost $800. He thought it too much and 
gave out word that inside the next twenty-four hours he 
would run the whole batch of logs loose over the falls. 
The agent fearing to lose the toll went to see him; and 
softened down to four hundred dollars. 

"Mr. Thayer," said Morse, "I'll give you just two hun- 
dred dollars to put that lumber through. Not one cent 
more." 

Then without further parley Steve, spying a great family 
Bible on a shelf in the tavern, shouldered it and started 
for the schoolhouse, the crowd following to see what he 
would do. His love of talk this time brought out a good 
Baptist sermon. He took up a large collection from the 
admiring followers. But Steve would not keep a cent of 
the money. He ordered it given to the poor. Mr. Henry, 
the tavern keeper, not to be outdone, opened his books 
and scratched out the accounts against Mr. Morse and all 



BOOK IX. THE RIVER 153 

his men. The lumber all went through the canal that 
Sunday evening at Steve's price. "And the next night 
was flip night." 

Uncle Bill Russell was another long time toll gatherer 
after the locks were first built, "rough, honest, eccentric, 
faithful." Captain Spencer one time tried to beat him 
down on the toll. Spencer was a good man but had one 
oath, used on every important occasion. 

"By h — 1, Uncle Bill," said he, "that's too bad; that's 
altogether too high." 

Russell did not listen to him. Spencer followed him 
all over the canal yard. Finally, Uncle Bill turned and 
took the Captain's receipt and disappeared into his count- 
ing room. Soon he reappeared and handed the altered 
receipt to Captain Spencer (he had added another hundred 
dollars to the bill), saying, 

"There, by h — 1, see if you are satisfied now." 

Uncle Bill was worsted once by a Wells River raftsman, 
who sold him a couple of owls for talking parrots. "Dic- 
tionaries were no account when he discovered the cheat." 

The greatest glory and poetry of the river was in the 
boating. This began as we have seen long before the 
Revolution. It was merely improved, not created, by 
the locks and canals of 1795 and after. The Connecticut 
was originally navigable for vessels of twelve feet draft, 
thirty miles to Middletown; and for smaller sea-going 
craft, fifty miles, to Hartford. For flat boating it was 
early navigated three hundred miles to Wells River, Ver- 
mont, and even further. This is of course barring the 
carrying places, the longest one of which was the Great 
Carrying Place across Montague plain. Later when the 
locks and canals were built, then boats of twenty-five tons 
burden made the entire trip, while boats of forty tons 



154 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

ascended to Montague City and Cheapside. Originally 
the boats were drawn up inclined planes on carriages from 
level to level of water, until the regular principles of a 
water lock were better understood and applied. The 
building of the canals was in itself a tremendous under- 
taking in its day. There was not money enough in the 
state to do it. Dutch capital was secured. The engineer- 
ing was also crude, as persons who had studied mechanics 
and even the general principles of physics, were few in the 
land. Extreme ingenuity, however, marked all that was 
done. And this led even to some valuable discoveries in 
the realm of mechanics as we shall see. 

Rum was a heavy cargo in the commerce of those days. 
Captain Flower of Feeding hills, for many years sailed 
between Boston and Hartford with rum and mackerel 
every spring, for the up river trade. When the cargo of 
rum came aboard the river boats, the boatmen had an 
interesting way of taking toll. Filling a bottle with water, 
they inverted it, with the open neck plunged into the 
bunghole of the rum barrel. The water, being heavier 
than the rum, sank; and the rum rose into the vacuum of 
the bottle. Of this they drank their fill. 

The act incorporating the "Proprietors of the Upper 
Locks and Canals" at Turners Falls was passed in 1792. 
The following summer, the engineer, Captain Elisha Mack 
of Montague, made some unavailing attempts to build a 
dam at Smead's island, but was foiled by the depth of the 
water. He hired a clever Scotchman, a professed diver, 
to work for many weeks on the invention of a diving suit, 
a water-tight bag or case for the body and with windows 
for eyes. But on the evening of the completion of the 
suit, the Scotchman proposed to celebrate by visiting a 
lady who lived up in the country. The grateful Captain 



BOOK IX. THE RIVER 155 

Mack loaned the fellow his best gray horse. But neither 
horse nor rider were ever seen again. In 1793 Captain 
Mack completed a dam on the site of the present dam of 
the Turners Falls Company; and then began digging the 
canal. This was (minus recent enlargements) the same 
as the Turners Falls Company's canal to the Griswold mill. 
Thence it turned an angle slightly toward the hills and 
crossed the Montague City road near the present New 
Haven station, and followed close to the city road to a 
point west of the Fishing Rod Factory, and thence at a 
slight angle due south to the river along the bed of the 
little brook, Papacomtuckquash. Hophin King of North- 
field built the locks, several years later, to take boats and 
rafts 13x70. 

The boats were made of pine for the upper reaches of 
the river. They had no deck; and the boatmen lived on 
shore. But on the lower reaches they were of oak and 
fitted with living cabins. The usual method of propulsion 
was by main and top sails when the wind was up stream. 
At other times they went by the "white ash breeze," as 
the boatmen termed it, that is with poles twenty feet long 
having heads against which they pushed with their shoul- 
ders, two to six men on a side, according to the " hardness 
of the water." Up the swift places the green men strained 
till their shoulders bled, "the hardest work known to 
man." 

After 1826 steam began to be applied. The first 
steamer above Hartford was the Barnet, named for the 
town in Vermont intended to be the head of steam navi- 
gation. The new boat made five miles an hour up stream. 
"The farmer left his team, the merchant his store, the 
hired man shouldered his hoe and took to his heels, and 
even the girls and some of the mothers left their spinning 



156 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

wheels and dish-pans and cut for the river to see the first 
steam-boat. A resident of Haverhill, N. H., celebrated the 
event in some rhymes, all but these two verses of which 
are lost: 

This is the day that Captain Nutt 
Sailed up the fair Connecticut. 

The second steamboat on the river was the Blanchard in 
1828, followed by the Vermont and the Massachusetts. 
The Vermont plied sometimes as far north as Windsor, Vt. 
Then the John Led/yard was built in 1831 and went as far 
as Wells River. Another steamer plied between Bellows 
Falls and Mclndoes. The Connecticut Steamboat Com- 
pany had, in 1831, six steamers assigned to the different 
reaches. Among their fleet were the Adam Duncan, Wil- 
liam Holmes, and William Hall, costing $4800 each, and 
able to tow six luggers each. The luggers, once loaded, 
went through to the destination of the goods, between 
Wells River and Hartford. But this company made no 
money, and failed. After that, there were no steamers 
above the Montague canal. 

The Phoenix, Hampden, and Agaicam continued to ply 
below. The Ariel Cooley, afterwards named the Green- 
field, ran for years between So. Hadley and Montague 
canals and to Cheapside, for the Greenfield Boating Com- 
pany. She was a stern wheeler, ninety feet long, eighteen 
feet beam and had two twenty horse power engines. On 
the 18th of May 1840, when just above Smith's ferry, she 
burst both boilers, killing Mr. Wood, the engineer and 
Captain John D. Crawford, blowing him high in the air 
and landing him on one of the boats in tow. The fireman 
was blown into the river and escaped. Mr. Lancy the 
machinist was killed. One of the boats in tow was sunk, 



BOOK IX. THE RIVER 157 

and several men on the other boats hurt. A new boat, 
also named Greenfield, took her place and was in service 
until the opening of the railroad to Springfield in 1846. 
Freight from Hartford to Montague canal was $7 a ton, 
and the luggers carried forty tons each. From this point 
I let Mr. Dewey tell his personal tale: 

"The 'Connecticut River Valley Steamboat Company' 
was in full operation in 1833, when I first became ac- 
quainted with the freighting business on the river. They 
owned a line of boats called 'luggers,' running from Hart- 
ford to the head of navigation at Wells River, Vt., and 
also several stern wheel steamboats, used for towing the 
same. As the steamers were too large to pass through 
the locks and canals, the first steamer would take them, 
sometimes four and even six at a time, as far as Williman- 
sett. They were then drawn over Willimansett by a 
strong team of oxen led by a span of horses, operated 
through the South Hadley locks and canal, and were 
taken by the next steamer above to Montague canal ; then 
by the next from Miller's River to the foot of Swift Water 
at Hinsdale, N. H., and, I believe, in a good pitch of water, 
as far as Bellows Falls; and so on. Other boating com- 
panies were engaged at the same time, and carrying large 
amounts of goods of almost every description used in 
country stores from Hartford to all the principal towns in 
the valley, freighting down with wood, brooms, hops, 
stoves, shingles, wooden ware and sometimes fine lumber. 
These companies used more convenient and serviceable 
boats, well rigged with main and top sails, running-boards 
and cabin, with rudder and helm instead of the steering 
oar. 

" On the Greenfield Montague reach were Stockbridge, 
Culver and Company, — David Stockbridge, David Culver, 



158 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

J. D. Crawford, and T. M. Dewey (of Montague). They 
owned the steamer 'Ariel Cooley,' which took their boats 
from the head of South Hadley canal, and winding around 
the Smiling Hockanum and Old Hadley bends, and through 
the sinuosities of School-meadoiv flats, landed them at the 
foot of Montague canal. This run (forty miles) was gen- 
erally made in twelve hours, with four boats in tow, and 
through the night as well as daytime, unless it was very 
cloudy. 

"Above Turners Falls, after the collapse of the Connec- 
ticut River Valley Steamboat Company, all steamboating 
was given up, — freight-boats, smaller than those at the 
lower sections of the river relying on the south wind and 
the 'white ash breeze.' J. G. Capron and Alexander ran 
one or two boats in connection with their store at Win- 
chester, New Hampshire; Hall and Towns by way of Brat- 
tleborough ran two more, and supplied the merchants of 
that place and vicinity; and Wentworth and Bingham 
those of Bellows Falls. Other individuals and companies 
whose names I cannot recall, were engaged in this enter- 
prise; and the merry boatmen's song was heard far up 
the valley. 

"No department of the business of this country offered 
so wide scope of incident, and called into action so great 
a number of jolly, hard-working, determined and unself- 
ish men, as that of the Connecticut river in its palmiest 
days. They were the stoutest, heartiest, and merriest 
in all the valley, and there were few towns from Hartford, 
Connecticut, to Northumberland, New Hampshire, un- 
represented. If there arose any disturbance in city or 
town, it was a common thing to send for a few Connecticut 
river boatmen, and it was soon quelled. . . . These 
river-men might indeed be called 'sons of Anak,' as they 



BOOK IX. THE RIVER 159 

were of prodigious strength. The names of Sam Granger, 
Tim Richardson, Charles Thomas, Bart Douglas, Mart 
Coy, Sol Caswell, Cole Smith, and last and stoutest of 
them all, Bill Cummins, would strike terror to all loafers, 
beats or bruisers in the city of Hartford, or wherever they 
were known. Cummins would lift a barrel of salt with 
one hand by putting two fingers in the bung-hole, and set 
it from the bottom timbers on top of the mast-board — I 
have seen him do it. 

"One Sabbath morning, in the spring of 1837 or '38, 
the boat of one of our oldest river-men, whose destination 
was Old Hadley, lay at the foot of Ferry street, Hartford, 
loaded and ready for starting. The men were variously 
employed. Some were smoking, some washing their cloth- 
ing, and some reading; but all of them were trying to 
'woo the southern breeze,' which gave signs of immediate 
action. At this point the old captain came down to the 
river, eyeing the mare-tails in the southern sky, and told 
his men not to start if the wind did blow, as he was opposed 
to Sabbath work entirely. But as he was leaving he 
called ' Moses ' aside and handed him fifty dollars, saying, 
'You may want it for toll and other expenses.' Probably 
Moses knew what that meant when translated into Con- 
necticut river English. The captain then returned to 
Bartlett's Hotel, took a glass of 'pep'mint,' called for his 
horse and carriage, and drove twelve miles to Windsor 
locks, where he found his boat and men trying to persuade 
Mr. Wood, the toll-gatherer, to let them through. The 
men were not dismissed for disobeying orders, for they 
had 'a glorious south wind.' 

"Now go with me from Hartford up the river on one of 
our best cabin boats, in a good south wind or by steam. 
First get under Hartford bridge; then up mast, hoist sail, 



160 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

and we leave Pumpkin Harbor gushingly. On Windsor 
flats and Scantic we stir up the sand, but the wind in- 
creases and away we go. Steady there! Windsor locks ! 
Let off that brace; round with 'em; down sail. 'Jo, run 
along and get a horse ready while we operate through the 
locks.' And so we pass through Enfield canal, six miles 
by horse power; operate through the guard lock; up sail 
again, and leaving behind the roar of the falls, and the 
still louder roar of 'Old Country' Allen, our boat goes 
through ' Longmeadows Reach ' kiting with a ' bone in her 
mouth.' We pass Springfield on a close-haul, and soon 
reach the foot of Willimansett. Here Captain Ingraham 
hitches on a big team of six oxen and two horses, with a 
chain one hundred feet long, and draws us through the 
swift canal, called 'drawing over Willimansett.' We then 
cross over to the foot of South Hadley canal, operate 
through the locks, after paying toll to 'Uncle Si,' then 
through the canal, two miles, and if the wind is strong 
enough, sail out at the head, and on up the winding river." 
At this point Mr. Dewey gives an elaborate description 
of the difficulties of getting out through the swift waters 
at the canal's head, and of an ingenious machine invented 
by Harry Robinson, one of the pilots, by which the de- 
scending current turned a mill wheel aboard the boat and 
so kedging the boat automatically up stream. The boat- 
men called this machine a fandango. 

"Our boat has sailed on around Hockanum, and with a 
little aid from 'white ash,' around 'Old Hadley turn,' and 
now, after running the guantlet of School-meadow flats, 
which would puzzle an eel to do, has made the foot of 
Montague canal. And so on through the canal and 
through Miller's upper locks, and thence plain sailing to 
the 'foot of swift water' at Hinsdale. Here if the wind is 




North-nest view of Montague, (central part.) 



BOOK IX. THE RIVER 161 

not very strong, we take in a few ' swift- water-men ' for 
twelve miles, then on to Bellows Falls, and the same over 
and over to Queechee and White River locks, up to Wells 
River. This is a good week's work, but it has been done 
in less time. A day's work with the poles, however, would 
be from Hartford to Windsor locks, — with a good south 
wind, from Hartford to Montague canal. Between the 
last-named places but little poling has been done in the lat- 
ter years of boating, as steam or wind was more available. 
"The down trips of these boats were a different thing. 
A boat loaded with wood, brooms, wooden-ware, hops, 
and other bulky articles was not an easy thing to handle 
in a wind. Pilots were necessary over the falls at Enfield 
and Willimansett. At the latter place Harrv Robinson 
held this responsible position many years, and Joseph Ely 
was his successor. At Enfield the signal strain of 'Pilot 
ahoy ! ' was heard at short intervals through each boating 
season, either for boats or rafts. This call brought out 
Jack Burbank, Alv Allen, 'Old Country' Allen, and Cap- 
tain Burbank, Sr., who would come aboard and draw cuts 
for the chance. The boat was then put into trim for 
'going over,' oars and poles all handy, rigging properly 
coiled, and every man ready for any emergency. The 
channel is as difficult to run as that in the St. Lawrence 
from Montreal to Laprairie ; but the afore- mentioned pilots 
seldom touched a rock. This run of six miles was quickly 
made, when the pilot would sometimes get a chance to 
ride, but generally walked or ran back for the next boat. 
His fee was one dollar and a half each trip, and his was a 
laborious life. But they have all gone 'over the river' 
for the last time, except Adna Allen, formerly for twenty- 
one years pilot of the passenger-boats running between 
this city and Hartford, and who now resides in this city. 



162 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

"It was a custom to 'break in' the raw hand on the 
passage of the freight-boats over Enfield falls, by showing 
him the silver mine at 'Mad Tom.' The initiate must 
get down close on the bow-piece to look for the silver, and 
when the boat pitched into 'Mad Tom,' and the water 
rushed over him a foot deep, he would generally retire 
aft and say he'd 'seen enough,' and it would require quite 
a number of gin-cocktails at Hartford to dry him ! 

"Some of the pleasantest days of my life were spent at 
the helm of the old steamer 'Ariel Cooley' in passing up 
and down between South Hadley and Greenfield, — some- 
times with four or six boats in tow, sometimes with only 
two, the down trip being usually made without any, — 
as we wound around the placid Hockanum of former days, 
before the impatient river, like many a would-be reformer 
of the present day, concludes to straighten things, and 
so cut a channel through its narrow neck, — that is, cut its 
throat, — with Mt. Holyoke on our right, looking majesti- 
cally down upon our boys, who were quietly enjoying the 
scene, as if saying to them, 'Come up higher,' while the 
carpeted meadows of Northampton seemed as urgently to 
invite their attention to their own realm of beauty. 

"This towing process was of great benefit to the men, 
as it gave them the leisure they so much needed to wash, 
to mend, and to refresh themselves and prepare for the 
hard work to come, when the steamer had taken them 
through. In this, as in other vocations, some will be 
remembered by their eccentricities, some by their reticence 
and others by their loquacity. I have listened till ' beyont 
the twal' to the anecdotes of Edmund Palmer and Bob 
Abbe. I have known John Sanborn to go the whole 
round trip from White River, Vermont, without speaking, 
and Dick Thorpe would talk enough to make it up ! Other 



BOOK IX. THE RIVER 163 

notables were Captain Peek, who presided with so much 
dignity over the passenger-steamers from this city to 
Hartford, and who was said to have been arrested for 
smuggling! This was a line of small steamers first put 
on by James Blanchard, then of this city. The 'Massa- 
chusetts ' only could come up over Enfield falls, and many 
of this day can remember the sturdy form of the faithful 
pilot, Ad Allen, who so long guided these boats through 
storm and shine. Captain Increase Mosely, too, com- 
manded one of these boats awhile, — the best singer of 
Connecticut river; Captain David Hoyt another, — the 
complete story-teller. 

"Captain Jonathan Kentfield was also one of the early 
workers on this river, and ran a line of boats on his own 
account for a number of years. His distinguishing char- 
acteristic was pomposity, but he was considered a trusty 
and competent boatman. While he was in his best days, 
the body of a deceased member of Congress from Vermont 
was sent forward from Washington and came from New 
York to Hartford by steamboat, directed to his friends in 
Vermont, to go by first boat up the Connecticut river. 
None of the up-river companies were willing to take it. 
Finally one who knew the captain's weak spot (he was 
called 'Captain Don't') told him that the remains of a 
Vermont member of Congress had been forwarded to his 
special care to go up by his boat. 'Very well,' said Cap- 
tain Don't, 'Boys, do you hear that? Drop down the 
boat to the steamboat, and take the body aboard! How 
the people of the city of Washington knew that I was an 
old and experienced boatman, God only knows. I don't.' 
The boatmen took it aboard, taking a frequent sniff of 
something warm the while, and when fairly under way by 
the side of the up-river steamboat, Captain Don't called 



164 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

his men and said to them, ' Come aft men, come aft, and 
take something to drink; dead bodies aboard, — ten or 
fifteen, p'haps, one sartain, — and who knows but what 
they died of some d — n spontaneous disease? Drink be- 
hind that hogshead, and don't, for God's sake, let General 
Culver see you!' 

"I should also speak of Abbe and Ensign, who boated so 
many years to Warehouse point; King Hiram Smith of 
South Hadley; Captain Sam Nutt, of White River; Tom 
Dunham, of Bellow Falls; and Rufus Robinson the most 
consummate waterman of the Connecticut river valley, 
who performed the feat of sailing a boat loaded with a 
valuable cargo through to Wells River, Vermont, the first 
time he ever went up river beyond Turners Falls. He 
also ran the 'Adam Duncan' minus her machinery, over 
South Hadley falls, and came safe ashore below. Yet 
with all his skill, his life was closed by his being carried 
over Holyoke dam, a few years since. Captain Granger, 
who had no superior on the river, recently died at the age 
of sixty-five. His old comrades hold him in affectionate 
remembrance. We have now left amongst us, of the men 
who formerly took part in the scenes I have described, 
Roderick Ashley, Stoddard Parker, Albert Gowdy, Adna 
Allen, and Sylvester Day, who with others I have named 
are and were good and substantial men." 

Greenfield, a good deal of the time, depended upon the 
landing at Montague City, on account of low water in the 
Deerfield river. A ferry ran over from the Greenfield 
shore long after the bridge was built. In 1828 David 
Wait of Greenfield was driving onto the ferry boat at 
Montague City, near the locks, when the boat parted its 
cable and sunk about six rods from the shore. Four 
horses were drowned and seven hundred pounds of cheese, 



BOOK IX. THE RIVER 165 

ninety-one firkins of butter and eight hundred pounds of 
tallow were spilled in the river. Near the foot of the 
canal was a large store built partly over it so that goods 
from the boats were delivered directly into the back room. 
This was owned by Amos Adams and Elihu P. Thayer, 
the Thayer who succeeded 'Uncle Billy' Russell as toll 
gatherer for the canal. Ptolemy P. Severance of Green- 
field followed Thayer and continued as long as the canal 
was in use. 

About 1806 a dam and lock were built just below the 
mouth of Miller's river to make slack water at the 
French King rapids. The second dam at Turners Falls 
was built by Lieutenant Hale after the great flood 
of February 10, 1824, which carried away the South 
Hadley dam, the Montague City bridge and the dams 
at Turners Falls and at the French King rapids. Sol 
Caswell, a native of Montague, was foreman in replac- 
ing the dams here, as he had been in building the first dam 
at the French King. He was one of three persons known 
to have gone over Turners Falls and lived. The first was 
an Indian squaw; the second was the ferryman, in the days 
of Elisha Mack, the builder of the first dam; and the third 
Sol Caswell, while building the dam in 1824. He landed 
on the little island at the mouth of Fall river. 

Amongst the rivermen whom Captain Luey of Green- 
field remembers as having originated in Montague are the 
following: Captain T. M. Dewey (whom I have quoted, 
and who was a partner in the Greenfield Boating Com- 
pany), Rufus Ware, Jo Day, Chauncey and Henry 
Loveland, George, James, Charles, and Julius Martin, 
Sol, Almon and Bill Caswell, Harlow Humes, Chauncey 
Lincoln and William Hunter. 



Book X+ Drum Taps, 1786-1865 

ALL the military interests of this town not already 
k. recounted will be dealt with here, up to 1865. Shays' 
Rebellion followed about five years after the Revolution. 
It was confined to the western counties of Massachusetts, 
although there were similar disturbances in Pennsylvania 
and elsewhere. The sole cause was the poverty of the 
people and their senseless efforts to collect of each other 
by process of court. Almost annihilated by the French 
and Indian wars, as we have seen, our valley had scarcely 
a dozen years of respite when we were plunged into the 
desperate war with the mother country. No section had 
suffered so much before; no section gave more now to the 
cause of the Revolution or gave more heartily. Many a 
thrifty man was wrecked by the Continental currency, 
repudiated by the bankrupt nation. People here went in- 
sane over suits at law whether in collecting debts or in 
defense where there was nothing but one's means of liveli- 
hood with which to pay. Debts simply could not be paid. 
Lawyers and courts as debt collectors were inopportune. 
The people were incensed against them. One man, for 
instance (one, however, who had too good sense to rebel), 
who owned several thousand acres of land in a Hampshire 
town and before the Revolution had spent strenuous years 
establishing and organizing a settlement and improving 
his property, was obliged to sell out to a Boston land com- 
pany, some time after he and his two sons went into the 
war. When he came home at the end of the war, almost 
a wreck, having left one or both sons on the battlefield, he 



BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 167 

found the money he had received was absolutely value- 
less. Nevertheless the courts maintained the validity of 
the sale. There was I believe an appeal made to the legis- 
lature for redress, there certainly was one made to Con- 
gress but without results. One of the finest and most 
energetic souls that ever lived died in miserable pov- 
erty, while others fattened on his life's labors. This was 
the Rev. Cornelius Jones of Myrifield (Rowe). There 
were thousands of tragedies like this in these counties. 
The lawyers and courts acted without sympathy towards 
the debtors, strangely unconscious of their numbers or 
the depth of their distress. They were debonaire and 
contented, as a man with a full stomach and without the 
grace of God, is sure to be, when others perish. They 
even argued, which of course was insolent. There were 
no arguments acceptable to a man fighting with back to 
the wall, except relief. The people decided to shut up 
the courts and hang the lawyers. 

At Colrain there were only two men dissenting from 
this program; and those barely escaped lynching. In 
Greenfield the people were pretty well divided. Some 
towns sympathized more and some less with the plan of 
shutting up the courts. Demagogues were active, of 
course. Sam Ely of Conway seems to have been a dema- 
gogue; and many foolish things were done by his advice. 
He seems to have been the chief spokesman of the rebel- 
lion. But he had no organizing ability or ideas like a 
Samuel Adams, whom no doubt he tried to imitate on a 
small scale, and no sense of the remedy appropriate. And 
yet there was reason in the cause, which enlisted many 
good men. Captain "Grip" Wells of Greenfield was one 
of them; and Captain Thomas Grover of Montague was 
another. He was Montague's first Captain of minutemen 



168 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

in the Revolution. An even greater worthy than Grover, 
who threw his soul into the rebellion, was Moses Harvey. 
Harvey was also a minuteman who was in Grover's com- 
pany that responded to the first Lexington alarm. He 
was one of the first representatives of this district in the 
General Court and had been a member of the first com- 
mittee of correspondence. The name of Harvey was one 
of the very first established in our Montague geography 
which has never changed, the hill of that name honoring 
Moses Harvey's father. And Moses Harvey left his name 
to a section of one of the first highways, now abandoned, 
"Harvey's path." When Shays failed at Springfield and 
his men were scattered over the hills of Petersham, Moses 
Harvey came home and faced the music;. and his fellow 
citizens, who had so many times delighted to honor him, 
were now regaled with the sight of him sitting on the 
gallows one hour with a rope around his neck. He also 
paid a fine of fifty pounds. Captain Grover escaped to 
Worcester and from there issued an address stating the 
reforms he had expected to see put in force. In his pre- 
amble he modestly disclaims any purpose of calling atten- 
tion to himself, but feels that it is his duty to speak in 
defense of the insurgent cause, "because it has fallen to 
my lot to be employed in a more conspicuous manner than 
some of my fellow citizens in stepping forth in defense of 
the rights and privileges of the people, more especially 
of the County of Hampshire." And here is a resume of 
the reforms which he proposed : 1 . Revision of the consti- 
tution. 2. Total abolition of the Courts of Common Pleas 
and General Sessions of the Peace. 3. Location of the 
capital outside of Boston. 4. Dispensing with the office 
of deputy sheriff. 5. Dispensing with certain state of- 
ficers connected with finance. — A sufficiently radical pro- 



BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 169 

gram, such as a man contemplates when he orders the 
doctor to saw off a gangrened leg. 

Of course the rebellion was a pitiful affair from start to 
finish. It was the chills and fever of a people worn out 
by cruel labors and sufferings. The bad logic of it was, 
as Dr. Holland intimates, it was the people fighting them- 
selves for their own mistakes and failures. They must 
have patience with themselves. Justice, in matter of 
property and finance, cannot be settled by the talk of 
Sam Ely and a handful of ill-organized soldiers. It is a 
big subject, the biggest subject before the world still. 
None of the leaders of Shays' rebellion, however, seem to 
have received one ray of inspiration or uttered a single 
principle as a contribution to emancipation of the poor. 

Almost as pitiful as Shays' rebellion was our second war 
with England in 1812. The causes were very much the 
same, the waspish, worn-out nerves of suffering and ex- 
haustion. The country was a long time in recovering 
from the old wars. The wounds of the Revolution bled 
afresh with every latest slight of the big mother nation. 
And we had become just prosperous enough to feel bump- 
tious. There were undoubted acts of meanness, particu- 
larly upon the lonely ocean then ten times broader than 
now and more lawless where pirate law still ruled between 
civilized nations, and so when the baffled king's men met 
ours 

Alone on a wide, wide sea; 

So lonely 'twas, that God himself 

Scarce seemed there to be. 

And so we read, that in May 1811, the British sloop 
Little Belt fired upon the American frigate President, 
probably at the name. But immediately afterwards the 
Little Belt was probably sorry, being nearly cut in pieces 



170 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

by the hot resentment of the President folk. Meanwhile 
Napoleon carrying out the fine law of nations in those 
days had gathered in several million dollars worth of 
American shipping, and we liked it. England on the 
whole was really trying to be good; and there was no excuse 
for American insistence upon war. When she saw that 
hot blood was up, she revoked some offensive "orders in 
council" and swore she would not search our ships, if we 
didn't want her to. But it was no use. 

Henry Clay and a group of bumptious Americans were 
afflicted with Anglo-phobia. On June 12, 1812, war was 
declared. On August 13, Captain Porter ran down the 
British ship Alert, unawares, and in eight minutes made 
her apologize to the stars and stripes. Six days later 
Captain Isaac Hull, of the Constitution, suddenly came 
upon the little Guerriere off St. Lawrence and, in a tower- 
ing passion of patriotism tore into her with his whole 
forty-four guns and sent her to the bottom with one 
hundred English heroes. It all happened inside of thirty 
minutes. On the 13th of October, the Wasp (named for 
the American war party) tackled the British Frolic (which 
was doubtless out only for fun) and carried it off bodily. 
Then the Hornet did some remarkable work. 

Finally John Bull thought he was being personally 
attacked and got angry and sent a lot of fellows over here 
to burn Washington, the main nest of the wasp and hornet 
fellows. 

Montague was disgusted at the whole thing from start 
to finish. Promptly upon receiving news of the declara- 
tion of war, a town meeting was warned July 13, 1812, 
Major Benjamin S. Wells presiding. Hearty disapproba- 
tion of the war was voted. A memorial to the President 
and Congress was adopted and generously subscribed to, 



BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 171 

praying that war might cease. Also Doctor Henry Wells 
was sent as a delegate to a Convention at Northampton 
"to consider the state of the country." That convention 
representing our three valley counties, also condemned the 
war. Never but one Montague man, Chester Taylor, 
volunteered service in that war. Fifteen others were 
drafted, however, as members of the state militia. The 
town took no note of their names, offererd no bounties, 
made no provision of any kind for the alleged cause. That 
was a last recrudescence of the old Revolution fever, that 
came from a bitter grudge against England. It was as 
illogical and unnecessary as Shays' rebellion. Its main, 
if not its only accomplishment, was to furnish a lot of 
exciting incidents for a long line of boys' story books, 
highly flattering to juvenile pride in bumptious victory 
for victory's sake. 

The land then had rest for thirty years, during which 
we grew rich and powerful. The per capita wealth of 
New England in the '40's (and there were no great for- 
tunes whatever) was said to have been the greatest of any 
community of equal size in the history of the world. The 
average intelligence and mental activity was correspond- 
ingly great, perhaps the greatest since Athens in the days 
of Pericles. Population swelled immensely; and we had 
begun to settle the great spaces west of the Alleghanies, 
and to establish there our successful democracy; when 
another foolish war came upon us, the Mexican war of 
1845. Philosophically speaking, one would judge that 
war as a deliberate case of national wickedness, the crimi- 
nal outcome of coveteousness, of course chargeable directly 
to the slave power. But Massachusetts had formerly 
been a slave state and had never done anything constitu- 
tionally to stop the iniquity of buying and selling human 



172 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

beings. In fact in Indian times Massachusetts had been 
a cruel example in trading off Indian families to West 
India planters, generally for some slight offense against 
arbitrary Christian laws. A few personal servants were 
held as slaves by the wealthy; but local slavery died out, 
not on moral or constitutional grounds, but from economic 
desuetude. That is, because slave labor being the least 
skilled of all labor, had no large areas of land, ready fer- 
tilized and prepared by nature for cropping, in New Eng- 
land, to furnish any economic basis for its use. That is 
why slavery ceased here and in England and other Euro- 
pean countries. 

Slavery was on the point of dying out in the south until 
cotton was introduced, a crop that could profitably employ 
a large amount of least skilled labor, on virgin soil. Cli- 
mate, soil, and wide uncultivated areas combined for a few 
years to give slavery a vigorous lease of life. But the 
southern lands were soon worn out; and the masters were 
compelled to seek "fresh fields and pastures new." By 
this time, however, the economic and moral evils of slavery 
had become so apparent to people living outside its wast- 
ing, demoralizing grip, that there sprung up a determined 
opposition to its extension to new territory, beginning 
with the "Missouri Compromise" of 1820, on. Hence the 
bloody struggle in Kansas and Nebraska, and the en- 
croachment upon foreign territory in Texas. 

In 1836 Sam Houston had fought the Mexican troops 
in Texas and set up an independent republic. In 1844 
the cotton planters wanted it for a slave state. But 
when it was annexed in 1845, they found it would never 
be enough. A boundary dispute arose and more land 
was taken from Mexico. James K. Polk who had been 
the "dark horse," pledged to assist the slave power, and 



BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1856 173 

elected President, promptly sent the United States regu- 
lars into Texas to back up all claims. Then another 
pretense was soon trumped up. Polk's troops were 
attacked by the Mexicans, who were defending their bor- 
der. This was made an excuse for taking the rest of 
Mexico. 

Most of the fighting of this war was like repelling the 
attacks of a swarm of mosquitoes. The Mexicans at 
that time did not seem to have the serious abilities of pro- 
fessional or natural fighters. The country was soon over- 
run ; and the capital taken. And when peace was solemnly 
declared our government at Washington arranged to take 
over a territory, (in addition to everything claimed before 
the war) as large as Germany, France, and Spain com- 
bined. The slave power was indulging happy dreams. 
And Mexican humorous cartoonists have ever since been 
pleased to represent Uncle Samuel in the figure of a fat 
hog. 

The north could not prevent the annexation of New 
Mexico, Arizona and California; but fought to exclude 
slavery from the conquered dominion. The "Wilmot 
proviso," and other measures following, worked to this 
end, and put the South at bay, fighting for its life. The 
attitude of New England towards the war of 1845 was 
well voiced in the Bigelow Papers, by James Russell 
Lowell : 

Jest go home an' ask our Nancy 

Wether I'd be sech a goose 

Ez to jine ye, — guess ycu'd fancy 

The etarnal bung wuz loose. 

She wants me fer heme consumption, 
Let alone the hay's to mow: 
Ef you're arter folks o' gumption, 
You've a darned long row to hoe. 



174 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Montague has no public record of connection with events 
of the Mexican war. But this much has been necessary 
to recount, to lead up to the feeling that was growing here 
against the institution of slavery. The war was generally 
condemned and democrats (more and more that party 
absorbed the pro-slavery elements) were hard to find. 
Anti-slavery feeling was running high in 1840, when 
"Uncle" Avery Clapp drew on the front yard fence at 
his house a picture of some negro slaves and a man with 
a cat-o-nine-tails lashing them. Underneath he put the 
word Protection. This was the rallying cry of the other 
political party, the Whigs. And the cartoon was intended 
as a satire upon that whiffling party, without any real issue 
but the "get elected" one, sometime called "practical 
politics." The Whigs had become so practical, in the 
election of 1840, that they did not dare risk their success 
even to ambiguous and lying promises as is usual with 
practical politics. They issued no platform. The same 
year, the Rev. Rodolphus Dickinson, a man who had lived 
long in the South and sympathized with the democrats, 
made a political speech in Montague. The late Samuel 
D. Bardwell remembered a single scrap, describing this 
staggering attitude of the Whigs: "Here's to the Demo- 
cratic party, tauntingly termed by their enemies, 'loco 
focos,' which being literally translated signifies 'light in 
high places.' But any light in any place is enough to des- 
pel the utterances of the whole Whig junto." 

In 1844 the Whig party stood out against the policy 
that made for war with Mexico. This emptied the party of 
pro-slavery men. Montague went almost solidly Whig, 
but cast three out-and-out anti-slavery votes, those of 
Samuel D. Bardwell, Joshua Marsh, Jr., and Elijah Gunn. 

Before another election, it became apparent to many 



BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 175 

that the Whig party, as organized, could never be trusted 
to lead the country in any straightforward way on the 
issue of slavery, as it was coming to be clearly defined. 
So the Free Soil party was started. This seemed to satisfy 
the anti-slavery sentiments in all parties. Montague was 
the first town in the region to win an election on this issue. 
In 1848 the Free Soilers sent Joseph Clapp to the legis- 
lature. Afterwards they elected Alpheus Moore for two 
successive terms. In 1852, the national election year, 
the Whigs proved so hopelessly few, they never seriously 
entered the field again. 

The Democrats availed themselves of their complete 
control to break down the old "Missouri compromise," 
which had prohibited slavery from the territories. In 
1854 Kansas and Nebraska were so reorganized that min- 
ions of the South could camp in them long enough to set 
up slavery and retire. This was called "squatter sover- 
eignty." Montague had a very earnest word to say on 
this matter, while the Kansas-Nebraska bill was pending 
in Congress. March 6, 1854, it was "resolved that the 
'Missouri compromise' is a solemn compact between the 
North and South and that the 'Kansas and Nebraska 
bill' (which had passed its third reading in the senate) is 
frought with evil tendencies." It was further the belief 
of our citizens that "the Missouri compromise broken 
down, we are at the mercy of a Caligula or a Nero." It 
was also voted to instruct our representative at the Gen- 
eral Court, to introduce an order requesting Edward Ever- 
ett (who had shuffled the issue) to resign his seat in the 
United States Senate. This same year the Republican 
party was organized. And when in 1860 the vote for 
president was counted, it was found that Montague had 
given, of her 234 votes, 211 for Abraham Lincoln. 



176 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

The following years were scenes of mustering troops 
and shattered stragglers home returning. Of all sad wars 
we cannot help feeling, this one was the worst. Brother's 
blood was steeped in brother's on a vaster scale than the 
world had ever known. Hell reigned for four years. 
And when great victories came to the North, they came 
with sobs and crying; for had we not been embrued to our 
horses' bridles in kindred blood? And underneath all, a 
deep moral sense of relief, of a titanic quarrel of a genera- 
tion ended. The North was right; and all honor to her 
men who stood up to the guns of "Union and freedom," 
when the South had lost all moral stamina and principle. 
But after all is done and said, the chief result of the Civil 
war was in bringing itself and the quarrel of thirty years 
to an end. The honor of this is due to the just, humane 
man Abraham Lincoln and every human being who sup- 
ported, him and when it was over shared his "charity to- 
wards all." 

As a part of that charity we must recognize that the 
South was fighting for life and home as circumstances had 
developed them. None of us are so fond of throwing off 
the habits and circumstances in which we and our fathers 
for generations may have been comfortable and even 
happy and suffered and loved much. And so for me, 
though a northerner of pure Republican and Puritan tra- 
ditions I cannot help dropping a tear also on the graves of 
Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and their men, 
praying God that such great loving hearts may stand al- 
ways like a wall of fire around the homes we love. But 
for North, South, East and West together I pray that we 
may learn to leave to Him who has made life, to settle all 
matters of its taking away; and that we may henceforth 
bend our energies and self sacrifice to developing the hardly 



BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 177 

touched resources of the earth, rather than contending 
for the few scraps of property now above ground; and for 
securing each man in what he actually earns. 

I will now outline the chief things in Montague Civil 
war record. 

May 2, 1861 : voted uniforms for the soldiers, at the 
expense of the town; to give soldiers leaving a wife, $10 a 
month, $3 a month for each child, and $3 for a dependent 
aged mother; to give the use of the town hall for drill; to 
raise and appropriate $1000 to carry out these purposes. 

May 11, 1861 : voted to rescind the vote of May 2 relat- 
ing to the pay of soldiers; and voted to pay $1.00 a half 
day for men drilling, and to borrow $500 for this purpose. 

November 4, 1861: voted to appropriate $500 to aid 
families of volunteers; to open the town hall free of ex- 
pense for all war matters, including the work of the 
ladies for the soldiers. 

July 24, 1862: voted to give $100 bounty for each of the 
seventeen volunteers enlisted to fill the towns' quota 
under the President's call for 300,000 men; to borrow 
$1700 for this purpose. A subscription was opened and 
$1875 was subscribed. 

September 8, 1862: voted to give $100 to all men in 
service under the last call for nine months men; to pay 
$100 to each of the three surplus men who volunteered. 

March 2, 1863: voted to raise $4000 for state aid to 
families of volunteers. 

Here is the list of men in service May 1, 1863: Guy 
Bardwell, Dennis Boswell (died), David Burnham, Chas. 
K. Burnham, Truman Bowman, J. D. Boutwell, J. A. 
Bascom, Erastus Burnham, Lewis A. Drury, Henry J. 
Day, James W. Horton, G. C. Kaulback, James M Mat- 
thews, C. A Murdock, James W. Potter, Alfred Pierce, 



178 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

H. W. Payne, George D. Payne, Charles W. Peeler, J. S. 
Pierce. G. S. Pond, Henry Taylor, Jr., Albert Smith, 
Lucian H. Stone, W. Cheney Stone, John P. Sawin, Par- 
ley H. Smith. Frederick Sanderson, Manley Stowell, A. 
Monroe Webster, Charles B. Wait, George Wait, G. N. 
Watson, Charles P. White, W. II . Spear. Levi Brizzee, 
C. Holden. S. D Phillips, E. L. Goddard (died), John 
Mealy, Douglas Stevens, S. O. Amsden (died), Patrick 
Britt, Christopher Arnold (died) S. S. Shaw (died). 

May 6 1864: voted to raise $8000 state aid for families 
of the volunteers ; to give $125 bounty to each of ten men 
who shall volunteer or be drafted to fill our quota. The 
men seem to have been drafted and $1250 was raised. 

June 4, 1864: voted to borrow $3000; to call for twenty- 
four volunteers and three more to make out our last 
draft for our quota for this year: to raise $2200. 

July 1, 1804: a list of men in service, with their ages and 
regiment numbers; Jedediah Bout well 33-52d (injured) 
David Burnham 25-10th, C. K. Burnham 23-34th, Levi 
Brizzee 20-2?th, Patrick Britt 36-10th, Oscar Britt 25- 
27th, Moses H. Bardwell 18-«d Heavy Artillery. Joseph 
Burns 28-30 Battery. W. G. Boutwell 22-8d Battery. 
William E. Bardwell 19-2d Heavy Artillery, Otis E. Cas- 
well 35-32d, Andrew L. Cooley 18-2d Heavy Artillery, 
Henry Dickinson 27-10th, Henry Dewey 42-10th, Lewis 
A. Drury 39-2?th, E. S. Dewey 23 57th, James S. Day 18- 
2d Heavy Artillery, E. Payson Gunn-drafted, Charles D. 
Gunn 34-25th, E. L. Goddard 27-31st (sick), J. W. Hor- 
ton 34-34th, Dwight D. Holden 22-27th, George C. 
Kaulbaek 20-10th, H. W. Loveland 25- (in war). Fred- 
erick A. Loveland 23- (in war), Emerson Newton 18-34th, 
Truman Newton 27-34th, Marcus Newton 26-34th, J. 
P. O'Meeley 24-31 st, Joseph Potter 38-10th, Walter 



HOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1805 179 

Pierce 20- (in war), Meander Patriek 25 (in war), 
Brigham S. Ripley 21- (in war), Elihu Rockwood 22- 
(in war), Frederick Spaulding 28 31st, Stephen F. Spauld- 
ing 22-3d, William II. Spear 24- (regular), Albert Smith 
34 10th, Charles I). White 29-27th, George Wright 24 
10th, Fredereiek E. Wright 18-2d Heavy Artillery. This 
list serves to illustrate how young the men are who 
usually go to war. 

April, 1805: voted to raise $1500 for families of volun- 
teers. 

There were in all about 3500 men from Franklin County 
serving in the "Civil war," of which Montague sent 120 
out of a population of fifteen hundred or about half its 
able bodied men. Following is the list: E. S. Dewey, 10th, 
(). E. Caswell 32d, Guy Bardwell 10th, I). A. Boswell 10th, 
Patrick Britl 10th, S. S. Waterman 34th, Philip Atwood 
10th, (). II. Littlejohn 10th, J. W. Potter 10th, David 
Burnham 10th, Walter Pierce 34th, Albert Smith 10th, 
C. K. Burnham 10th, Alfred Pierce 27th, Cyrus Marsh 
34th, Brigham Ripley 27th, J. W. llorton 37th, J. W. 
Matthews 1st, L. H. Stone 52d, C. W. Stone 52d, H. W. 
Payne 52d, George D. Payne 52d, A. M. Webster 52d, 
L. I). Could 53d, Henry Taylor 52d, Chas. B. Wait 52d, 
George F. Wait 52d, John P. Sawin 52d, Truman Bowman 
52d, Charles A. Murdoek 52d, G. N. Watson 52d, Charles 
P. Peeler 52d, S. S. Shaw 52d, J. D. Boutwell 52d, Chris- 
topher Arnold 52d, Henry J. Day 52d, A. H. Sawin 52d, 
J. S. Pierce 52d, George F. Adams 52d, J. L. Andrews 52d, 
E. N. Marsh 52d, John A. Bascom 52d, Erastus Burnham 
52d, George S. Pond 52d, Parley H. Smith 52d, Frederick 
Sanderson 52d, Henry W. Sandford— P. H. Goddard 26th, 
E. L. Goddard 26th, Otis Spencer 27th, Julius Clapp 27th, 
Truman Ward 27th, Frederick A. Spaulding 26th, Stephen 



180 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Spaulding 26th, Joseph Burns 22d, Charles D. Gunn 25th, 
William H. Adams 10th, E. F. Hartwell 10th, Dwight 
Armstrong 10th, George Reynolds 10th, David Pratt 10th, 
Frank Ripley 10th, John Brizzee 34th, Dwight Stewart 
27th, A. E. Stevens 27th, Meander Patrick 26th, Edward 
Mawley 10th, Marcus Newton 34th, Tyler Williams 10th, 
Ethan A. Taft 37th, Morton E. Taft 27th, Levi Brizzee 
27th, E. D. Burnham 10th, C. A. Clapp 10th, O. E. Cas- 
well — L. A. Drury 27th, Henry Dickinson 10th, George 
P. Holden 27th, D. D. Holden 27th, H. W. Loveland 27th, 
Frederick Loveland 27th, L. D. Phillips 23d, E. R. Rock- 
wood 10th, Manley Stowell 52d, William H. Spear 21st, 
T. O. Ansden 27th, Joseph F. Webster 10th, Charles P. 
White 27th, Charles C. Brewer 52d, Charles B. Gunn 
52d, A. L. Cooley 27th, E. N. Stevens 27th, D. A. Stevens 
27th, Oscar Britt 27th, James K. Knowlton — , Moses C. 
French 10th, George C. Kaulback 10th, John P. O'Meley 
31st, Munroe Wright 10th, Gaines T. Wright 10th, E. W. 
Whitney 34th, Geo. A. Wright 10th, Otis S. Munsell 22d, 
E. P. Gunn—, W. E. Bardwell 2d Heavy Artillery, M. H. 
Bardwell 2d Heavy Artillery, F. E. Wright 2d Heavy Ar- 
tillery, James S. Day 2d Heavy Artillery, Truman Newton 
34th, Emerson Newton 34th, William G. Boutwell 3d 
Battery, Henry B. Graves 3d Light Artillery, W. J. Potter 
34th, Edward L. Loveland 1st Heavy Artillery, D. L. 
Warner 12th, Charles Webster— C. N. Lawson 27th, R. N. 
Clapp 52d, Laureston Barnes — . 

The following lost their lives in the service: Guy Bard- 
well, D. A. Boswell, O. H. Littlejohn, Cyrus Marsh, Brig- 
ham Ripley, J. M. Matthews, S. S. Shaw, Christopher 
Arnold, John A. Bascom, P. M. Goddard, F. A. Spaulding, 
Dwight Armstrong, Frank Ripley, A. E. Stevens, Tyler 
Williams, E. A. Taft, M. E. Taft, T. O. Amsden, D. A. 



BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 181 

Stevens, Gaines T. Wright, E. P. Gunn, William G. Bout- 
well, Warren J. Potter, Levi Brizzee. 

Here follow brief chronicles of the three Massachusetts 
regiments in which the Montague boys were most numer- 
ously enlisted. The Tenth Massachusetts Infantry was 
made up largely of the 10th Mass. Militia. It responded 
to the call of May 15, 1861 for three years men. It 
rendezvoused at Springfield the 14th of June. Colonel 
Henry S. Briggs was put in command. It left for the 
seat of war July 16, and sailed from Boston to Washington 
which was reached July 28. A few of the men were taken 
into the gunboat service of the West on the 5th of Feb- 
ruary, 1862. March 26, the 10th entered ship and was 
taken South against Richmond; and it was initiated May 
31 at the battle of Fair Oaks. General Keys, who "had 
led a hundred regiments in battle," said, "their conduct 
was unparalleled in the whole war." July 1 they were 
in the front lines at Malvern Hill. Jan. 5, 1863 Colonel 
Henry L. Eustis was in command. In the spring of 
1863 G. C. Kaulback of Montague, Lieutenant in Co. B., 
had charge of a balloon corps on the Rappahannock. May 
3 the regiment was in the battles of Salem Heights and 
Chancellorsville. About the middle of January the Rev. 
Perkins of Montague became chaplain. He built a log 
chapel for religious services and organized a lyceum. 
May 5, 1864, they were in the battle of the Wilderness 
where they lost one third their number. May 12 they 
were at Spottsylvania, and June 3 at Cold Harbor. Then 
they came back to Springfield to be mustered out July 1, 
1764, what was left of them — 220 men. 

The Twenty Seventh Regiment was organized at Spring- 
field September 20, 1861, under Colonel Horace C. Lee. 
It reached Annapolis Md. the 5th of November 1861. It 



182 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

saw battle at Roanoke Island February 7. It was in the 
battle of Newbern N. C. March 11, 1862; Gum Swamp 
May 20, 1863; Arrowfield Church (Va.) May 9, 1864; and 
on May 15, Drury's Bluff, where a quarter of its number 
were captured and taken to Libby prison. One hundred 
men of the twenty seventh died in southern prisons. 
After Drury's Bluff the regiment was reorganized under 
Major William Wa'lker. June 3 it was in the battle of 
Cold Harbor, where Major Walker was killed. The com- 
mand devolved upon Captain Caswell and on June 13 
was transferred to Captain Moore. June 18 the regi- 
ment was at Petersburg, one of the hottest battles of the 
war. In that vicinity it was continually under fire until 
August 27. On September 27, 1864, 179 men were mus- 
tered out at Springfield. March 8, 1865 the remainder of 
the regiment was captured at Goldsboro. In all, 430 men 
had been prisoners. 

The Fifty Second Regiment was organized in 1862 at 
Camp Miller in Greenfield under Colonel H. S. Greenleaf. 
The men were enlisted for nine months. They reached 
New Orleans November 19. They were employed in the 
investment of Port Hudson and on strenuous marches 
scouring the surrounding country for many leagues up 
and down the river. They were, at one stretch, twenty- 
five days in the siege lines before Port Hudson. And this 
was the first regiment after Grant's taking Vicksburg, to 
ascend the Mississippi. Probably no regiment has been 
as well written up as the 52d Massachusetts, in Colonel 
Greenleaf's history, and in James K. Hosmer's The Color 
Guard written on the field in a most stirring literary style 
from personal experiences. 

Of the closing scene at Port Hudson he wrote: "The 
clash of the hostile forces here had been tremendous. It 






BOOK X. DRUM TAPS, 1786-1865 183 

was impossible to think of the Northern power except as 
a terrible fiery tide, which, responding to some tempest 
breathing of God, had hurled itself upon this outpost. I 
came when the storm was gone, and could see the mark 
of the sublime impact. The sea had torn its rugged zig- 
zag way through the bosom of the hill and plain, dashed 
against battlement and cliff, and reared at the bases until 
it had hollowed out for itself deep, penetrating channels. 
Everywhere it had scattered its fiery spume. Within 
the citidel lay siege-guns and field-pieces broken and 
dented by blows mightier than those of trip-hammers; 
wheels torn to bits; solid oaken beams riven as by light- 
ning; stubborn parapets dashed through almost as a loco- 
motive plow dashes through a snow-drift, — these and the 
bloody garments of men." 




Book XI -+- Old Town Memories 

Transcript of Notes made by R. P. C. of a Conversa- 
tion had with Samuel D. Bard well of Shelburne 
Falls in August, 1895. 

SAMUEL D. BARD WELL born in 1819 on the Chaun- 
cey Loveland place. Left Montague in 1856. 

In 1834 the old church bell, which had been bought by 
subscription, was taken down in the night lest some of the 
people who had subscribed to it should make an objection. 
Henry Taylor was employed to do it. It was cracked in 
the process of lowering. It was afterwards hung in the 
new church. 

In the spring of 1833 I went into Carlos Allen's store. 
This was in what had been a hotel kept by Col. Spencer 
Root, who afterwards moved to Greenfield. He married 
an aunt of mine. Allen ran it two or three years. I 
collected for him one year. The store was in the south end 
of the building in a wing. No country store then could 
live without a good stock of liquor. There ^vere three 
stores then in the village. The other two were Ferris & 
Ward in the basement of the present hotel, and Delano at 
the upper end of the street. Used to work until eleven 
o'clock in the evening. Was awakened frequently in the 
morning by calls for rum. My father lived then in the 
north part of the house. My father moved from the 
Chauncey Loveland place in 1833. First after moving 
lived in this building; next we lived on the Chenery farm — 



I I Brick Cburch 



Town Hall (one story building) 

a 




Avery Clapf , bouie built about 1838 
The Hunter pla<t -was bought by father Stone {Sarah- 
father) and it is now the L fart of our bouse. 
Martins Hon! was covered with signs and legends 
mating conspicuous ,1, chancer a, a temperance hotel. 
After-wards cut in two. 



^ Dodge (Site of Dr. Cobb',) 
Formerly a p ar , of a building on site of Dikes Mill 



Dr. Wright 
Huirl after 1841 



Montague Center in 1842 

According to Joseph Clapp, Jr. 



BOOK XL OLD TOWN MEMORIES 185 

the Nathan Chenery farm. This place embraced the 
land where Isaac Chenery now lives and territory adjoin- 
ing. The farm ran clear up to the cross road which runs 
from Warren Bardwell's to Federal Street. 

Lyceum 

In 1834-1835 I went to school in the village. Erastus 
F. Gunn and Elihu Gunn (the latter a cousin of Edward 
Payson Gunn) and myself started a Lyceum. My brother 
Warren, and Moses Root (son of Salmon Root) were also 
of the originators. I think in all five met to organize. 
Our first question, which was then one of the advance 
questions of the day, was whether capital punishment 
should be abolished. I was president, Erastus and Elihu 
were the disputants. That organization was kept alive 
and flourished from 1834 or 1835 until into the '50's. 

[Mr. Bardwell thinks the Lyecum described by Seymour 
Rockwell was merely a continuation of this one.] 

The Eb Whitney house stood south of the hotel. The 
first store I remember in it was the one kept by Cephas 
and Spencer Root — the same ones that kept the hotel 
opposite. It was a general country store. They moved 
to Greenfield. My father moved them. This was before 
we moved down from the Loveland place. Next after 
their removal Colonel Ferry kept store there. Do not 
think anybody kept there after him. 

When John S. Ward came from Petersham, Ferry was 
keeping store in the hotel basement. Squire Ward — 
John's father — came to town after John came. 

When Delano came down street and built the store 
opposite the present hotel, John S. Ward began to keep 
store up-street in the old Chenery store. 



186 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

The place on which Edgar Bartlett lives was the Joseph 
Gunn farm. 

I think that Squire Ward (John S. Ward's father) 
bought it late in the 30's. He lived in the old house now 
torn down about opposite the Keyes place. When John 
was married his father built the present Bartlett house for 
him. The Squire's name was Henry Ward. He died 
about 1847. He was accounted one of the wealthiest men 
in the County. John was then living in the new house. 
Deacon Leach of Wendell built it. When the house was 
nearing completion the old Squire was out there, palsied 
and infirm, gazing at the columns as I passed by. I bade 
him good morning. He said: "I tell John that I have 
known many a man to build himself out of doors." He 
was a very wise man. One saying of his has been worth 
more to me than all the pulpits in the land. I was sitting 
in the old Chenery store (it stood a little farther west than 
the one where Isaac Chenery kept the post-office; made 
into a tin shop afterwards). No one was in the store but 
John, his father and myself. (I then lived in the Holton 
house.) A man came in to settle his account. John and 
the man did not agree and had a violent dispute. I had 
never heard such talk before. The old Squire sat there 
with his hand shaking on his staff, never saying a word. 
Finally, after the brush ended and the man had gone, the 
old Squire looked up at John and said in his pleasant voice, 
"John, I have seen many a man get in a passion, but I 
don't know as I ever saw one act the wiser for it." That 
made a lasting impression on me. 

I remember Otis B. Gunn well. I remember when he 
began engineering under Alfred Field of Northfield, who 
was a noted engineer. 

I kept store in the basement of the building near the 



BOOK XI. OLD TOWN MEMORIES 187 

depot. I built it and opened the store in the fall of 1848. 
I had a store at Grout's Corner in 1848. The railroad 
was opened to Brattleboro in December 1848. I then 
moved my store to Montague. I took a contract to 
supply the railroad from Grout's Corner to the Connecti- 
cut River with ties. In the fall of 1849 I finished the store 
into a house. This was afterwards the Dr. Armstrong 
house. I married that winter and moved into it. Moved 
my store to the north side of the barn, which was the 
second building I put up there. Then I built the house 
next to the road with the brick basement. Here is where 
I kept store until 1853. Kept store in the barn while I 
was putting up the building next to the street. I sold 
out that year to Humphrey Stevens. He was chosen 
Register of Deeds in 1855 and I bought the place back from 
him. In 1856 I traded both houses and the barn for the 
stone hotel building in Shelburne Falls. 

Leonard Chenery (Hollis Chenery's brother) in 1840 
kept a general country store and a good store it was. He 
built the store. The place is where Field now is. He 
had built it only a year or two previous. We lived then 
in the old Elisha Root house. Nathan Chenery was Leon- 
ard and Hollis father. He died about 1830. Nathan kept 
a store in the old building that was afterwards a tin shop. 
He left a large estate. He left four sons, two daughters 
arid a widow. The widow was Apollus Gunn's sister. 
Leonard Chenery was a bright, witty fellow. He died 
about 1846. Hollis succeeded him in the store. He took 
in J. H. Root, forming the firm Chenery & Root. After- 
wards it was Root alone. 

Elisha Root bought of my father the old house and a 
little land around it. He made wagons but failed up. 
He was postmaster at one time. 



188 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Military Companies 

I remember the "Flood wood" company and when it 
disbanded. As far back as 1830 it existed. Between 
the ages of 18 and 45 I think all men were subject to mili- 
tary duty. The Company only appeared in May, some 
members in uniforms and some without — a motley throng. 
The militia was reorganized in the '30's and independent 
companies formed. Capt. Lord organized the Frank- 
lin Guards. I trained with them a few years. We used 
to go to South Deerfield to muster. Captain Parker, — 
Lord, Roland Shaw and Rufus Stratton kept the hotel at 
different times. I do not remember any muster in the 
days of the "Floodwood" company, but think there 
may have been. I think Roland Shaw kept the hotel 
in 1840, 1841 and 1842. Think Lord went out a little 
before 1840. 

The mill opposite the Whitney place was built by an 
Asa Orcutt for a saw mill. Silas Lamson, a Jew, bought 
it of Orcutt in about 1837 or 1838. He did nothing there 
after 1840. 

The blacksmith Elihu Root had a son Elihu who ran 
away and went to sea. He had also several apprentices, 
among them John Gunn. 

Martin Gunn owned the Chenery farm bounded 
(roughly) north by the road running across the north end 
of the swamp from Warren Bardwell's toward Federal 
Street; west by the road from Thaxter Shaw's to the depot; 
south by the village street; east by line of the Goddard 
lot — a line running south from the brick yards. But the 
farm did not come out on to the street from the present 
town hall easterly. Martin Gunn I think sold to Nathan 
Chenery and my father Arza bought of him. 



BOOK XI. OLD TOWN MEMORIES 189 

Bardwell Ancestry 
Robert Bardwell 

Samuel Bardwell 

I 
Gideon Bardwell (my great-grandfather) 
I 
Samuel (my grandfather) 
I 
Arza (my father) 



Samuel D. Warren 

Gideon came from Deerfield. He moved from Green- 
field when my grandfather was two years old. He was 
born in 1759, hence the time must have been in 1761. The 
general grant of land may have been made to Gideon's 
ancestor. It embraced what was called a "mile square" 
but think it was really much greater. 

Gideon built the Chauncey Loveland house. When 
Arza came down to the village he sold the place to Col. 
Spencer Root. 

Jonathan Hartwell I remember well. He was not much 
of a lawyer. He built the present Robert Brown house 
after I left Montague. He previously lived in a little 
house on the same site. He was a man who read Shakes- 
peare and Burns a good deal. He was a good story teller. 
I never knew him to have a case in court. He farmed it a 
little; was postmaster; then he went to the legislature for 
I don't know how many years in succession. He had a 
wooden leg. 

Moses Gttnn 

The Moses Gunn that I knew lived as long ago as I can 
remember, where Henry Day now lives. He was then per- 



190 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

haps 70 or possibly 75. He was probably born in the 
neighborhood of 1760. He is said to have died childless. 
I don't know who his father was. 

We always went to church in Greenfield as long as we 
lived in the north part of the town. The Unitarian church 
was built about 1834. On the Unitarian side among the 
prominent ones were Clapp Wells' father (Col. Benj. S. 
Wells); Selah Root, afterwards Deacon, who lived oppo- 
site Squire Goddard's place; Salmon Root and Elihu Root, 
who were brothers. Elihu was a blacksmith. Also Judah 
Nash, son of the original Judah Nash; Erastus Root 
(afterwards Deacon), father of Joseph H. Root and Harry 
Root; also my grandfather Samuel. 

On the Orthodox side were my uncle, Deacon Rudolphus 
B ardwell ; Eliphaz Clapp (Deacon Richard Clapp's father) 
Joshua Marsh, Sr. ; Deacon Lucius Marsh; Obed Taylor, 
who lived on what was afterwards the Harris Sawyer 
place; Cephas Bangs; Gunns; Roots. 

My father Arza never was in either of the churches up 
to 1834. He never had a pew in the Orthodox church. 

Dr. Shepard and Daniel Rowe (father of Richard and 
Henry) were Episcopalians. 

Transcript of Notes made by R. P. C. of conversation 
had with Deacon Richard Clapp in August, 1895. 

My father always called the village Scotland. In my 
day the common lands were supposed to have been dis- 
posed of; but there were some. A committee consisting 
of Abel Benjamin, Zebina Taylor and Jesse Andrews were 
appointed about fifty years ago to look up the remaining 
common lands. The committee found quite a good deal 
and it was sold. The clean-up occurred within my remem- 



BOOK XI. OLD TOWN MEMORIES 191 

brance. I do not know the origin of the Common in the 
Village. 

Country Hill is next north of Pine Hill, which is next 
north of Bald Hill. 

My father used to spear salmon at the mouth of Cold 
Brook near Seymour Rockwell's. Probably there were 
very few there in last century. 

The old house here on Federal Street was built by Capt . 
John Clapp in 1754. It was a barricaded place; sur- 
rounded by palisades. It was a place where, if there was 
an alarm, the people came for the night. 

The schoolhouse on Federal Street was built in 1820 
or 1821. J — M., who lived on the present Poor Farm 
would not send wood to the schoolhouse because he 
claimed it was not in the middle of the district; so when 
his boys S., A., etc. (there were nine of them altogether) 
came to school in winter, the other boys would not let 
them come near the fire. 

The practice of sending wood to the schoolhouse was 
kept up down to Deacon Clapp's boyhood days. If a 
man did not send his share he was considered too mean for 
anything, although there was nothing done about it. 

The first meeting house was two stories high and had 
galleries on three sides. The floor space was divided into 
square pews. The entrances to the building were on the 
south, west and east sides. There was quite a tall steeple 
and it had a good bell, procured about 1800. 

Transcript of Notes made by R. P. C. of Conversa. 

TION HAD WITH MlSS LOUISA ROWE IN AUGUST 1895 

Born in 1811. 

The old school house stood where the brick church 
stands. I went there. I also went to it after it was 



192 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

moved over near Avery Clapp's house. I began to go to 
school at probably the age of five. I think there was 
no other school house in town then except one up at the 
old Taft place near the mouth of Millers River. Mr. 
Durkee kept hotel there. I went with my brother George 
who was a little older than myself. Other pupils were 
Erastus Avery and Cyrus Clapp and Aunt Julia Whitmore. 
The latter was about my age. The first man teacher I 
remember was a Mr. Durfee who afterwards became a 
minister. My father Daniel Rowe built this house. [Re- 
ferring to the house where she lived and where I had the 
conversation with her.] Richard afterwards raised it up. 
My grandfather's name was Daniel, too. My great- 
grandfather was John Rowe. His son Daniel — my grand- 
father — came here in 1798 from Litchfield, Conn. He 
bought a house and farm of Mr. Harvey. The old house 
was taken down some twenty-five years ago by George 
Gilbert, who built his present house on the same site. 

I have heard our people say that some Taylor — I think 
it was Ira Taylor's father — lived in a house that stood only 
a short distance beyond Mr. Lyman's house (the Henry 
Rowe place) on the same side of the road. It was not 
far from the Lyman house. The Taylor site was called 
the Lawrence lot; before that, the Frink lot. Ira Taylor 
was a cousin of Henry Taylor. 

Ensign Keet I remember. He lived where Joel Shepard 
afterward did. 

As long ago as I can remember there was a gristmill 
on the site of the present Nim's mill. 

I remember my father and mother telling about a 
funeral service over the death of Washington. My mother 
was Mary H. Wells. The service referred to occurred 
before they were married. 



BOOK XI. OLD TOWN MEMORIES 193 

The old church had a bell as long ago as I can remem- 
ber. 

My father and mother were great hands to dance. They 
always spoke of dances as "balls." I used to dance my- 
self a good deal. I attended dancing school at eleven 
years of age at Col. Spencer Root's hotel. A part of this 
hotel is on the street back of Jo Clapp's. Dancing was 
not disapproved of so much in those days as it was after- 
wards. There was nothing else to amuse young people 
in my early days. 

I can remember also Martin Root's keeping the hotel. 
He was then getting pretty old. He used, however, to 
entertain old travellers that had been accustomed to go 
there. 

Domer's Lane 

Mr. Elihu Clapp lived in the Kentfield place on Domer's 
Lane. In the middle house one Caleb Kingsbury lived. 
He was the father of Mrs. Apollus Gunn and Mrs. Eli 
Moody. In the little house between the Kentfield place 
and the Gunn place there lived "Daddy" Monroe. 
Salmon Gunn lived in the Gunn place and died there. 
I remember him. I remember also Henry, his son, who 
lived and died there. 

Dr. Henry Wells was my grandfather. He died when 
I was three years old. Benjamin, his brother, lived op- 
posite. That is where Cyrus Clapp afterward lived. He 
[Henry] was the grandfather of Kate Armstrong. Clapp 
Wells was Benjamin's son. Henry, who was an active 
physician, died in 1814. He moved to Montague, from 
Brattleboro in 1781. He was noted for his public spirit 
while in Brattleboro and he had a great reputation as a 
physician while here. Had consultation all over the State. 



194 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

He was a mild, benevolent looking person — Quaker-like 
in appearance. 

Notes taken by R. P. C. in August, 1895, of a con- 
versation with Joseph Clapp [Transcribed in 
April, 1909] 

Speaking of the older inhabitants, Capt. Lucian Stone, 
Dea. Richard Clapp, George Rowe, S. D. Bardwell, 
Alpheus Moore and Erastus Gunn are all within a few 
months of the same age. 

We moved from Taylor Hill to the "Jew" Place in 
1838. Lived there 4 years, came to the Severance house 
about 1842, and staid there one year; then one year in 
the old house by Uncle Jock Ward's on site of the house 
that Elisha Ward built. The old house is now next to 
the covered bridge on the west side of the road. The 
Severance house was the old one next south of the Shoe 
Shop. Was occupied by E. W. Severance, a tailor. 

Next, about 1843-44, lived in the house built by Joseph 
(my father) and Erastus. 

Father and I built my present house about 1850 or 1851. 

Old District Sehoolhouse — the brick one by Charles 
Gunn's. Think I remember it back as far as the thirties. 
My school mates were: Cephas Wright, Charles Kellogg, 
Bela Kellogg, Phineas Hosmer, Silas Hosmer, Freeman 
Smith, Maria Hosmer Lucia Ware, Solomon Root. 

Some of the teachers were: Zebina Field, Solomon 
Gleason, John Hamilton, Elijah Bent (of Wendell), Sarah 
Holmes, Hawley, J. P. Felton (now living in Green- 
field). 

The old sehoolhouse in the village was moved away 
shortly after 1842. The school was for a short time kept 
in the Town House. We (Joseph and Sarah) attended 



BOOK XI. OLD TOWN MEMORIES 195 

school there. The old building, in the interval between 
its removal and the erection of the schoolhouse, was used 
as a place of storage. 

In 1834 were built the Brick Church, the Grist Mill and 
the old Red Shop. The White (Unitarian) also built that 
year. 

The first teacher that I remember in the new school- 
house was Mrs. John Ward — or possibly Miss Page. 
Samuel Bardwell taught there at one time. 

Blacksmith Shop: Uncle Elihu Root before my day kept 
a blacksmith shop in the old portion of Dike's Mill. There 
used to be a trip-hammer there. Once when Zebina 
Marsh was sitting astride the handle or lever, Uncle 
Elihu soon set it going! ! 

Sports: We used to play "round ball" every Saturday 
afternoon. I remember one game where there were 13 
on each side. We played until sundown. The victorious 
side was only two "tallies" ahead. Some of the partici- 
pants in the game were: 

Capt. Stone, Luther Bardwell, Geo. Rowe, Moses Peeler, 

Henry Dewey, Drake, Porter Kellogg, Joseph Clapp. 

The "pitchers" were Drake and myself. Used that day 
a wound-rubber ball. My crooked ringers on the right 
hand are a memorial of that day. 

Gunn Ancestry 
By Mrs. Lyman 0. Gunn 

The first ancestor I have any authentic account of was 
Jasper Gunn, who came to this country in the Defence, in 
1635, with Ann his wife. Was a physician, and settled 
in Roxbury. After ten years he moved to Hartford Ct. 
where he died in 1670, leaving one daughter and four sons, 
Job, Daniel, Nathaniel, Mehitable and Abel. Nathaniel 



196 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

married Sarah Day November 17, 1658. He died in 1662 
leaving one son Samuel. His widow married Samuel 
Kellogg of Hatfield and was slain by the Indians Septem- 
ber 19, 1677. 

Samuel was born 1662, married 1685 and was one of 
the forty first settlers of the town of Sunderland, and lived 
on the site where John M. Smith now lives. He was a 
deacon, also prominent in town affairs. He was also 
engaged in the campaigns against the Indians. He died 
in 1755 leaving ten children. 

Nathaniel, born July 30, 1693 had three wives and seven 
children, Hannah, Nathaniel, Moses and Asahel, etc. 

Nathaniel was one of the first settlers of the town of 
Montague locating there about 1726. His son Moses 
was the first representative from this district to the Pro- 
vincial Congress in 1774 for which he received 3 lbs., 14 
shillings, and 4 pence. 

Asahel Gunn was born November 10, 1750 and married 
Thankful Marsh, 1751. He had eight children two of 
whom served in the war of the revolution, Asahel and Eli. 
I know nothing of Uncle Eli's war record, but I very well 
remember the curiosity I had to see the silver dollars the 
pension man (as I then called him) brought his widow who 
made her home with us. 

Asahel Gunn, my great-grandfather was paid 2 shillings 
a year for turning the key in the meeting house, and seeing 
that the doors were properly opened and closed. 

His wife, Thankful Marsh Gunn, taught the first school 
in the town of Montague. Their principal books were 
The New England Primer, Webster's Spelling Book and 
Pike's Arithmetic. Their slates were made of birch bark, 
their pens from goose quills, and the ink from the bark 
of maple trees. 



BOOK XI. OLD TOWN MEMORIES 197 

Asahel Gunn the third child of Asahel Gunn was born 
February 5, 1757, and served in the war of revolution. 

He appears with rank of lieutenant in Lexington Roll of 
Capt. Robert Oliver's company of minute men. Colonel 
Samuel William's regiment which marched April 22, in 
response to the alarm of April 19, 1775. 

Later he appears as Sergeant and afterwards was chosen 
Capt. Commissioned May 7, 1776. Discharged Octo- 
ber 3, 1778. He had two wives and eleven children, the 
youngest being my mother, Phila Gunn. She married 
William Nims who was a direct descendent of Godfrey 
Nims who emigrated to this country from England about 
1666 and settled in Deerfield. He was the first constable 
of Deerfield, at that time an office of importance, was 
selectman, and held other offices. 

His son John was taken captive by the Indians in 1703. 

In 1704 his house was burnt, four children killed, his 
wife and two children captured. Mrs. Nims died on the 
march, and one child never returned from Canada. 

There was no family who suffered more than the Nims 
family in the Deerfield Massacre. There is a tablet 
placed in Memorial Hall. 




Book XII-*- Peskeomskut 

THIS Indian name of Turners Falls means the place or 
river divided by rocks. 

About the last canal boat passed the locks at Turners 
Falls in 1856. Rushes and willows and settling mud began 
to choke and fill the old water way. The "Proprietors 
of the Upper Locks and Canals" had become an empty 
name; when in 1865 the genius who had built the Fitch- 
burg railroad together with the Massachusetts and Ver- 
mont and was successfully urging on the great bore through 
Hoosac mountain, saw in the cataract at Turners Falls 
and the immense power of contributory streams in the 
neighborhood, the basic means for building up the greatest 
city of New England. He had already risen from poverty 
to wealth as paper manufacturer and leading railroad 
magnate. This was Colonel John Alvah Crocker of 
Fitchburg. 

In 1865, Mr. Crocker and others bought all the stock 
of the old canal company; and in 1866, by act of the legis- 
lature changed the name to The Turners Falls Company. 
The capital of the reorganized company was $200,000, 
with privileges to increase to $1,000,000 and to use the 
river for industrial purposes. Wendell T. Davis, the clerk 
of the old company, held the same office in the new. Mr. 
Crocker was the first president. Twenty -four thousand 
dollars were spent immediately on a bulkhead in place 
of the old lock by the dam. And March 20, 1867, 
the present dam was completed. It has a thirty foot 
fall, much higher than the old one. It cost $105,000. 



BOOK XII. PESKEOMSKUT 199 

Seventy-five hundred horse power were developed. On 
April, 1872, the water rights at Factory Village were 
bought for $40,000 of the Greenfield Manufacturing Com- 
pany. About seven hundred acres of land along the river, 
and the site of the present village, were bought. By 
1879, the land holdings of the company were about 
1300 acres; and the capital stock had been increased to 
$300,000. A noble city was laid out, up the sand downs 
and over the Plain towards Montague town. William P. 
Crocker, a brother of Colonel Crocker, was the first en- 
gineer of the company and made all its plans. 

At that time, a good part of the land was the farm of 
Merrill Taft, whose house still stands near the end of the 
upper suspension bridge, west of the Montague Center 
road. Nearly opposite, and nearer the stream was the 
home of G. H. Taft, the brick house still there. These 
were the only private residences on the site of the present 
village of Turners Falls, in 1858. There were besides, a 
hotel, the buildings of the canal company, and a little 
schoolhouse, all near the upper end of the present Avenue 
A; a sawmill where the cutlery stands, and another canal 
building at the south end where the canal crossed the 
Montague City road. 

In the summer of 1904, the canal was enlarged so as to 
double the available water power, and extended 900 feet, 
with a new power house, and most modern generator, at 
a cost of $350,000. About the same time the company 
acquired the land at Indian dam, another great water 
power site, further down stream. 

The officers of the Company, in 1892, were: President, 
Charles A. Stevens of Ware; Clerk and Treasurer, Charles 
W. Hazelton of Turners Fallls; directors, B. N. Farren of 
Montague City; C. T. Crocker of Fitchburg; Charles A. 



200 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

Stevens of Ware; Moses Bulkley of New York; R. N. 
Oakman of Montague City; George F. Fay of Fitchburg; 
Clemens Herschel of New York; D. P. Abercrombie of 
Turners Falls. In 1904, Mr. Crocker was President; Mr. 
Hazelton Secretary and Treasurer; directors, Charles T. 
Crocker of Fitchburg; Jonathan Bulkley of New York; 
Charles A. Stevens of Ware; Alvah Crocker of Fitchburg; 
William P. Dustin of Turners Falls; D. P. Abercrombie 
of Turners Falls; and C. W. Hazelton of Montague 
City. 

Other institutions founded by Mr. Crocker were the 
two banks: the Crocker National Bank in 1872; the 
Crocker Institution for Savings in 1873; and the Montague 
Paper Company, with $125,000 capital stock at first. Of 
the latter he was president. Altogether Colonel Crocker 
put a half a million dollars of his personal capital into the 
development of Turners Falls before his death, the 27th 
of December, 1874. 

The village it is believed would have grown much faster 
if Mr. Crocker could have been young and with years 
enough to carry out more of his plans. At the time of his 
death it had seven churches, twenty-five stores and about 
two thousand inhabitants. The lower suspension bridge 
was built the year before, at a cost of $36,000. In July, 
1872 The Turners Falls Reporter, a weekly paper was 
started by A. D. Welch. He sold to Cecil T. Bagnall, 
the present editor and proprietor, in the fall of 1874. The 
upper suspension bridge was called for this same year, on 
the site of Bissell's ferry, which had operated for over 
one hundred years. There was much opposition to build- 
ing the bridge; and one of the arguments made most of 
in its favor was the alleged profanity of the ferry-man. 
Two witnesses testified to this, and declared that on ac- 



BOOK XII. PESKEOMSKUT 201 

count of it the ferry ought to be indicted and the bridge 
built, It was finally built in 1878, at a cost of $42,000. 

The first industry to settle at Turners Falls was the 
large cutlery plant of the John Russell Company in 1870. 
This was for a long time the largest thing of the kind in 
the world. It was originally established in Greenfield in 
1834 as John RusseWs Chisel Factory and afterwards as 
the Green River Works. Matthew Chapman, who learned 
the cutlery business in Sheffield, England, managed the 
works here until 1874. In 1873, the company was re- 
organized as the John Russell Cutlery Company, with 
$405,000 capital. R. N. Oakman, Jr., became manager 
and was succeeded some few years later by W. P. Dustin. 
Many hundreds of tons of steel are used in a year at 
the cutlery and thousands of varieties of goods are made, 
including one hundred and fifty kinds of pocket knives. 

The Montague Paper Company, now a part of the Inter- 
national Paper Company's system, located the second 
large industry in 1871, nearest the dam. The capital 
grew in a few years to three quarters of a million. News- 
paper has been the chief product. 

The Keith Paper Company came in 1871, to make fine 
writing paper. It had a capital of quarter of a million, 
which was trebled by 1874. It was burned out in 1877, 
but it quickly rebuilt its works. John Keith, the founder 
came from Holyoke. 

The Turners Falls Paper Company, now absorbed by 
the International combination, came in 1879 with $120,000 
capital. Its product has been newspaper. 

The same year, Joseph Griswold of Colrain completed 
a cotton mill of 20,000 spindles capacity, and brick tene- 
ments to accommodate 200 operatives. 

These were the larger and older establishments. Other 



202 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

industries have come and gone. There was a shoe factory 
which had a brief life. The failure of the Marshall Paper 
Mill was one of the depressing events of the 90's. The 
Clark and Chapman Machine Company, which made 
pumps and water wheels has been superseded by the 
Turners Falls Machine Company. The Esleeck mill took 
the property of the defunct Marshall mill half a dozen 
years ago and is making fine writing papers. 

The cutlery and the first and largest paper plant have 
been largely under the direction of the same men who 
developed the water power and controlled the land of the 
community. These men again with the successful mer- 
chants who have grown up with the village have directed 
its financial institutions. 

A number of merchants have been here from the early 
days of the village. 

The senior of the present merchants is G. L. Rist of 
Rist & Conant. 

One of the pioneers was Captain Joseph F. Bartlett, 
who was here in 1870. He opened in December of that 
year a paint and paper hanging store at the corner of 
Fifth and L streets. Captain Bartlett talks interestingly 
of the beginnings of Turners Falls, as well he may in view 
of the fact that when he came here there was only one 
building on Avenue A and the only mills were those of the 
cutlery company and the Turners Falls Pulp company. 
He built a brick block on the avenue a few years later and 
occupied it early in 1880. 

F. I. Webster, the hardware merchant began in 1873 as 
a member of the firm of Braddock & Webster and in 1875 
bought out his partner's interest. 

C. P. Wise, the grocer, started in business in 
1874. 



BOOK XII. PESKEOMSKUT 203 

The Allen Brothers opened their clothing store in Sep- 
tember, 1881, the junior of the firm, Myron B. Allen, 
having been previously a salesman in another store 
here for some time. They built their present store in 
1881. 

Another of the early comers still here is F. Colle, the 
druggist, who built the Colle opera house block among 
the first. 

The dry goods stores of the present day are in newer 
hands. The Boston store, which started in the early days, 
is now owned by C. H. Jillson, who largely added to its 
business. C. H. Rice & Co., located on the avenue at the 
corner of 3rd street. 

Turners Falls is a distinctly 19th century village with 
19th century ideals, and cosmopolitan. I have been 
giving largely the history of 18th century ideals and prob- 
lems. The 19th century aimed at a practical materialism; 
that too is passing away or rather being taken up into a 
movement to socialize the manufacturing villages and 
big cities. The 18th century ideals were mainly social 
and political. The 18th century solved the problem of 
civilization for a rural population; answered the question, 
" How can men live independently together on their sep- 
arate estates?" The 19th century undertook to show 
how men by getting together may get material comforts 
less laboriously by the use of invention. But socially 
the 19th century village and city have never been as well 
organized as the old New England town was. The 20th 
century has entered vigorously into the task of socializing 
and beautifying the barbarous 19th century city, and 
introducing material comfort into rural life by modern 
invention, art, industry, and intensive culture of the soil. 
The 18th century gave us a free constitution. The 19th 






204 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

century gave us a practical science of mechanics, chemistry, 
etc., foi lightening labor and increasing comfort. The 
20th century will more and more offer these advantages 
to the least member of a free community. The mission- 
aries of the 19th century proclaimed to the world the 
joys of possessing a free spirit. The 20th century mission 
is to proclaim the bounty of God to every creature. And 
to what end? Surely, that our villages may have the 
poetry that they lacked and that the country may have 
the life that it lacked. Money has flowed as water in our 
villages, but through sewer mains as it were, without 
reference to sentiment and art. There has been abund- 
ance, but little care as to who lived or how many of us 
lived. The farm has really increased in productiveness 
during this industrial reign of terror. But the old farm 
has not shown anything like its modern possibilities as a 
money machine. Now that we are swinging back a little 
to the "rights of man," the farm is already being studied 
intently by millions of people, for the first time in the 
history of the world, with a view to applying science and 
art to it, in order to give the individual that fullness of 
life which modern industrial organization denies while pro- 
viding the means for easy production. Relatively the 
people have never benefited yet from the introduction of 
labor saving machinery. Relatively in both city and 
country they have lost. The relative loss to the country 
districts has been enormous. This has intensified the 
struggle for existence and brought on labor wars all over 
the world. Men do not fight for a fixed standard of com- 
fort, but for a relative social standing with their fellow- 
men. This is human nature, the nature that will never be 
changed. Where there is human life, there is strife until 
there is justice. God has given men an instinct in these 



BOOK XII. PESKEOMSKUT 205 

matters that never becomes absolutely debased nor fully 
dies. 

But do you not hear the music in the mill wheel and the 
spindle that is full also of prophecy? We have missed for 
many a year the song of the jolly boatman making the 
best of a hard, romantic life, pushing his boat with the 
"white ash breeze" up our hard waters, bleeding at the 
shoulder — and withal singing. But in the spindle God 
himself is singing, a new song: 

'I nourished fishes by thousands. I fed, out of my 
stream, my Red children. They knew no arts. They 
came to me from Mantehelas and Mattampash, from 
Cowas and Squakheag, from Pequoig and Quaboag, from 
far-off Nashuelot and Wachusett — and I fed them all. 
I fed also the infant colony of the whites with my fishes. 

' I come again in the spirit of this ancient stream new- 
born. I weave your cloth. My vapor trundles your 
car and sends your carrier ships down the grooves of the 
sea. And so I clothe the folk of Africa; I wind the 
Hindu's turban, mayhap, for prayer and meditation, I 
clothe the gay South American senor tinkling tunes to 
his lady in the cool twilight. I frock thousands of school 
girls around the world. And I will clothe you. 

'I grind the pulp. I spread the films of paper. I 
cover the world with electric nerves that speed the press 
and carry the news and with knowledge as the sea. I 
rest not. I balk not, nor ever strike. I am infinite as 
the atoms of the stars. I break the rocks in the wanton- 
ness of my strength. I draw down blessings from the hills 
and clouds of heaven above. I am gravitation. I am 
the lightning. And I sing with the voice of the thunder. 
An angel passes in the troubled waters, and another in 
the brain of man; and the wisdom of the brain clasps the 



206 



HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 



angel in the turbine and will not let him go except I bless. 
And in the ages to come, I will bless the river banks and 
my meadows and the plain and the valleys and the moun- 
tains.' 




Book XIII + Old Town Industries 

THE first industry in Montague was lumbering, pre- 
ceding agriculture. Billings' mill is near the site 
of the first sawmill built by a company of men (as stated 
in the book of Pioneers), before 1715 and was contempo- 
raneous wth the settlement of Sunderland. A grist mill 
was soon built near the same place. 

Above the bridge where Federal street meets the North 
Leverett road, Asa Orcutt built a dam and sawmill; and 
sold to Silas Lamson, a Jew, about 1837. In 1830 Orcutt 
was engaged chiefly in making shingles there. Lamson 
made scythe snaths for a short time. Then Erastus and 
Joseph Clapp continued the same business there from 
1838 to 1842. The mill stood on the east bank. The 
finishing shop was on the west side of the river. 

The Red Shop was built by John S. Ward and Colonel 
Ferry for a store, which was moved there from the base- 
ment of the Tavern in 1834. It stood north and a little 
back from the present street half way between the Town 
hall and Court square. When Ward took the old Chenery 
store, nearer the common, he let the Red Shop in 1842 to 
Erastus and Joseph Clapp, who moved down from the 
"Jew's mill" with their scythe snath business, and con- 
tinued until 1860. After that, Melvin Bancroft made saw 
frames there. Then it became the furniture factory of 
George F. Richardson and Company. 

Dike's mill was built (ensemble) for furniture manu- 
facturing, about 1854, by George B. Richardson, (father 
of George F. and "Jim"). But there was an older ac- 



208 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

cumulation of buildings there, which Richardson bought 
and added to, the whole making the most picturesque 
mill property in the region. It possesses a romantic his- 
tory which begins far back. Just previous to Richard- 
son's contribution to the pile, it is known that George A. 
Clapp and Moses Peeler were making rakes there in an 
ancient sawmill. Earlier than that, was a blacksmith 
shop and another still older building, which was moved 
by a man by the name of Dodge, before 1842, and made 
into a residence on the site of Anson Cobb's, near the foot 
of Main street. I quote further from the Springfield 
Republican of 1909: 

" The old Dyke mill, incorporated under the laws of 
Massachusetts and capitalized for $5000, just out of 
Montague village on the road to Millers Falls, is being 
thoroughly repaired and put into shape for the various 
village industries that are to be carried on there. The 
early history of the mill is involved in some obscurity, but 
enough is known to show that its beginnings were long 
ago. Its interior, more especially the attic, is a veritable 
curiosity shop, and in the basement there is much of 
interest to be seen. Elihu Root worked at his trade as 
blacksmith in a building a part of which is the brick wall 
of the main structure. In 1832, Joseph R. Kilburn bought 
the property with the intention of converting it into a 
cotton mill, but met with so much opposition that he 
abandoned the plan. The portion called 'The Lightfoot 
and Thunderbolt saw-mill' was fitted up with an old- 
fashioned up-and-down mill for cutting out lumber. As 
for those noted highwaymen, it is highly probable that 
only by liberal stretches of imagination can they be con- 
nected with the mill. 

" The venerable sage of Deerfield, the father of local 



BOOK XIII. OLD TOWN INDUSTRIES 209 

history, whose interest in historical matters began many 
years ago, was living near Brattleboro many years ago, 
and says 'Thunderbolt,' one of the two Scotch highway- 
men, practiced medicine at Brattleboro before the middle 
of the last century, dying between 1840 and 1850, under 
the name of Dr. Wilson. He was a reputable man, had a 
good practice, and not until after his death did it become 
known that he was one of the men to ply the vocation in 
Scotland of the noted Jonathan Wild, who much earlier 
flourished across the border in England. Dr. Wilson al- 
ways wore a scarf or muffler round his neck and after his 
death a scar was found on his neck, and one of his heels 
was cork. There were also found his highwayman's weap- 
ons hidden. (By what was discovered after his death at 
Brattleboro, it was possible to identify him with the 
'Thunderbolt' of Scotland.) 'Lightfoot' was executed 
in Scotland for highway robbery. So far as is known, the 
two were not accused of counterfeiting. Counterfeiting 
was, however, carried on in a building adjacent to what 
is now the printing office. There a triphammer and bad 
half-dollars, 'half struck,' the other side being unfinished, 
were found years ago. 

"A frame building was erected there for the manufacture 
of chairs and settees by Richardson & Dike and later by 
J. Dike & Sons. Later Augustus Dike had a grist-mill 
there. For a long time the mill stood idle and seemed 
destined to slow but sure decay. The property was 
bought a year ago last May, and last June repairs began. 
The foundation walls have been relaid, a cement wheel 
pit constructed, cement sills put in to supersede the 
decayed wooden ones, machinery added and things gen- 
erally put to rights for carrying on business. The officers 
of the corporation are Edward Harmon Virgin of New 



210 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

York, president; Charles F. Kimball of Montague, sec- 
retary, and Carl Purington Rollins, treasurer and man- 
ager. Ample power is furnished from water in the pond 
and the waters of the river running down from Lock's 
pond can be easily diverted to the stream running into 
the pond. 

"The printing office is a pleasant room, well lighted, and 
the equipment is ample for doing fine book and job print- 
ing. The printing and other lines of industry carried on 
at the mill are the outgrowth of different industries started 
in Montague at various times by different persons. Mr. 
Rollins is a practical printer, whose work is of a high order 
of merit and the equal of that done anywhere. An unoc- 
cupied corner of the main structure, west of the printing 
office, will accommodate a cylinder press. It is the aim 
of the incorporators to do good work, to do those things 
which are worth doing, and at the same time earn a good 
living. They make use of machinery as tools, but not as 
masters of men. The cabinet work is done in the shop, as 
opposed to the factory system. It is the aim to produce 
a wide range of work in the cabinet shop, from toys to 
furniture and decorations. The cabinet shop, like the 
printing office, was moved from the village shop which was 
a link in the educative work started in 1901 by the Rev. 
and Mrs. E. P. Pressey and others, and is in charge of Mr. 
Kimball. Mrs. Solley's formulae are used in dyeing ma- 
terials for the rug department. There is a Knowles & 
Crompton loom for weaving wool pit rugs of various sizes. 
A dye-house has been made ready for use, and it is prob- 
able that rug weaving will become a prominent feature 
of the work of the Dyke mill. The bayberry dip candles 
are made in different sizes and packed in attractive boxes. 
These candles emit a pleasing odor when burning and are 



BOOK XIII. OLD TOWN INDUSTRIES 211 

beautiful in appearance. Over the cabinet shop is a room 
for finishing furniture. In the attic loft is a rich collection 
of miscellaneous articles, parts of wooden chairs, produced 
years ago and for which there is no sale now, relics of an 
old organ brought over from Leverett, articles of millinery, 
and, the best of all, Elisha Ward's gig." 

The present grist mill was built in 1834; and was 
operated by Alvah Stone. But there was an older mill 
on the site, dating from the 18th century. This is one 
of the most picturesque mill sites in this region so wealthy 
in the picturesque. Some of the proprietors, after Alvah 
Stone, have been L. H. Stone, S. S. Holton, Sylvester 
Bangs, W. H. Nims and George M. Stratton. 

Below Stone's gristmill, in the same steep gorge of the 
Sawmill river, some time it is supposed in the '20's or '30's, 
Colonel Cephas Lawrence built a sawmill and a carding 
mill; also an auxiliary mill near the old bridge, some rods 
above the present iron bridge. The auxiliary mill was 
some years afterwards converted into the dwelling of 
Norman Potter. The bridge at this point was the one 
"near the meeting house," referred to in an early town 
record. At these mills, the wool was carded into rolls 
for the farmers. Then after the rolls had been spun into 
yarn and the yarn woven into webs of white cloth on the 
great hand looms, the cloth was taken back to Lawrence's 
mill to be fulled, that is to be shrunk, thickened and com- 
pacted; then dyed and compressed in a hot press with 
alternating layers of thick pasteboard between. The sons 
of Colonel Lawrence, Charles and Henry, continued the 
sawmill until some time after 1865. Thomas F. Harring- 
ton occupied this plant for a good many years, making 
fig boxes, beating carpets by a process largely of his 
own invention, and sawing lumber; and latterly he estab- 



212 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

lished the electric light plant. Carl Wright, Mr. Harring- 
ton's son-in-law, is the present proprietor. 

Carriages and wagons were made by Avery Clapp, Sr., 
in 1837, in Morse's Shop, opposite the old town hall. 
When the new town hall was built, in 1858, Clapp seems 
to have moved to the old hall adding the brick basement 
for a shop, where Avery Clapp, Jr., was doing something 
at the business until his death a few years ago. Thayer 
and Dodge also made wagons in a shop north of the present 
town hall. 

In 1855 there were two candy factories, J. Ward's in a 
building north of Marsh's dry goods store; and T. E. 
Searles' where John Lawrence now lives. 

Early in the '30's Amos Rugg began manufacturing 
rakes, in a shop on the Leverett road above the present 
canal owned by Frank Cross. At that place was another 
canal now entirely filled up by the wash of the river. 
Afterwards the Ruggs bought a shop near the site of the 
present Village shop where E. S. Clapp had made scythe 
snaths; and developed in addition to their rake making a 
large furniture business. Their drying and storage sheds 
extended into the meadows far beyond the present Monta- 
gue steam laundry; the office building occupied the site 
of the Village shop; while the main building was directly 
over the flume. The old water wheel, made in Orange, 
was of twenty-five or thirty horse power. It was removed 
from the ruins of the old wheel pit in 1902, when the 
Village shop was built. Rugg's works were responsible 
for Montague's historic fire of 1889, in which this plant 
and half of one side of the village street were burned. 
Rugg reestablished his business in Greenfield; but Monta- 
gue never recovered from the blow. 

Emil Weisbrod started in 1870 a pocketbook manu- 



BOOK XIII. OLD TOWN INDUSTRIES 213 

factory, moving into the old schoolhouse on the common, 
next the "White church," when the new brick schoolhouse 
was built in 1873. But that business also moved to 
Greenfield after it had prospered for a few years. 

Bricks were made early in different places in town, es- 
pecially near the north end of the Mile swamp on the old 
county road. Ward and Lanois did a good deal of busi- 
ness there until very recent years. 

A cooperative creamery operated here some years, on 
the Montague City road, a mile from the Center. It took 
two medals at the Paris Exposition of 1890. But the 
members got tired of working together about two or three 
years ago. 

The old town industries suffered a period of change and 
eclipse. But manufacturing by machinery under the 
factory system will in turn see great changes. At Monta- 
gue Center changes have been going on for ten years, as 
part of a world wide movement for reviving all the old 
industries which are artistically interesting. The future 
will see a division of labor between drudgery-saving 
factories and handicraft shops. The handicraft shops 
will be located generally in the rural communities. 

The beginning of the new movement in old town in- 
dustries was in 1901 when the Arts & Crafts committee 
was organized in the Women's Alliance of the Unitarian 
church by Mrs. E. P. Pressey. The women at that 
time revived certain lines of artistic needle-work. A 
year or two later the work was reorganized outside the 
church as the New Clairvaux Arts & Crafts Society. The 
work of this society is small but steadily growing. In 1902, 
as a link in the same chain of ideas, the Village shop, an 
educational handicraft shop, was built and occupied by 
Mr. Pressey and associates as a sort of handicraft experi- 






214 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

merit station. And from that time successive industries 
and ideas have formulated themselves there and gone out 
into this and many other communities. In the course of 
a year or two the Spring Farm dyehouse was started, and 
a shop for renovating antique furniture at the same place. 
The dye works have continued at the Dyke Mill. The 
hand loom shop of Frank C. Cross and a number of other 
craft shops were successively started; in 1908, the Dyke 
mill. Country Time and Tide was published through 
eleven volumes by Mr. Pressey. It circulated the cur- 
rent ideas of handicraft revival, intensive agriculture, and 
a richer social life. Handicraft formerly published in Bos- 
ton, is now done at the Dyke mill and is the organ of the 
National League of Handicraft Societies, representing many 
parts of the United States. 

In 1908 the Montague Agricultural School was estab- 
lished by the town and state to be a high school educating 
along the line of ideas advocated by the promoters of 
Kindergarten, Sloyd, Manual Training, Handicraft in- 
dustries and the like, which have taken such a hold upon 
the old town and surrounding towns like old Deerfield 
of late years. The philosophy upon which the "new edu- 
cation" is founded, is that the brain, the hand and the 
moral nature have to be trained at one and the same time 
in order to develop good results; and further than this, 
that finest culture which shows itself in a sense and love 
of beauty cannot be preserved in any other way than by 
fashioning useful things with the hands and living with 
natural forms, to some useful purpose, through schooldays. 
In a word, brain power, character, culture are the ideals 
of the Handicraft movement; and this is closely allied 
with the new education. 



Book XIV '-+- Education 

THE first log schoolhouse was voted in 1757, " South 
of the road near Ensign King's barn and near the 
Mile swamp." Meanwhile it was voted December 5, 
1757, "to have four months school in Joseph Root's corn 
house." Samuel Harvey, Jonathan Root and Moses Tay- 
lor were the committee to see to it. But December 29 
the vote was reconsidered in favor of Widow Smith's 
house until "more suitably provided." School had been 
kept from house to house for some years before this time. 
The same year, Eliphalet Allis and Samuel Harvey were 
directed to arrange for one month of school on "Country 
Road." This may have been the north Federal street 
school at the foot of Country hill. 

December 11, 1758, it was voted to provide stuff for 
building the schoolhouse in the spring. If it was built, 
it was burned down; for December 17, 1759, it was voted 
to buy John Scott's house for a schoolhouse. This house 
too seems to have been burned soon after removal; 
for in 1763 the district prayed relief from a Province fine 
for failing to send a representative to the General Court, 
the district alleging that it had lost two schoolhouses by 
fire. 

In 1765, released from the fear of Indians, the district 
began extending the area covered by summer, or "dame" 
schools. One was to be kept at Sergeant Harvey 's (Coun- 
try Road); one at Moses Taylor's (North west); and one 
at Doctor Gunn's (South). 

December 2, 1765, it was voted to pay John Gunn, Jr., 



216 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

one pound twelve shillings a month for keeping school 
three months. 

The Little Brown Schoolhouse of many memories seems 
to have been provided for by vote of March 3, 1766, when 
it was ordered, "to build a school house 18x13 of wood." 
It was built on the site of the present brick church. "It 
had three or four windows" (according to Mrs. Welsie 
Gunn Haskins, who wrote about it from personal memory 
many years ago), "a large old chimney and fire place, with 
two large stones to support the fire wood. The teacher's 
seat was at the north end of the house, where was a small 
one-sash window to let in the light on the teacher's head. 
On the north side of the chimney was a rough closet expos- 
ing the poles and beams, and on the west and south were 
two small windows to reflect the rays of the sun on the 
well informed pupils. Their principal books were the 
New England Primer, Webster's Spelling Book and Pike's 
Arithmetic. Birch bark was used for slates. Such a thing 
as a dictionary was not then thought of in schools. On 
two sides were seats fastened to the walls, which were 
sealed around and over head with pine boards from the 
Plain, which extended far north of the village, where the 
wolf, elk, and fox and other animals roamed at large. For 
their writing desk they had a table similar to their long 
kitchen tables. On two sides sat the writing scholars, 
with pens made of quills plucked from the goose's wing, 
and ink made from the bark of the maple tree. On the 
other side was a movable seat, made with holes on the 
rounding side in which were placed four legs to support 
it. On the south side of the fire-place was a similar seat 
for the A, B, C class. Every day they went through a 
regular course of lessons. On some days, occasionally, 
they had other exercises. For one, the scholars were 



BOOK XIV. EDUCATION 217 

paraded in the yard each side of the door, while the 
teacher walked to and fro teaching them to say: 'George 
Washington, President of the thirteen United States of 
America!' encouraging them to raise their voices to the 
highest point, which made the welkin ring with the un- 
earthly sound. As the scholars increased and the old 
brown house became too small and rather on the decay, 
the inhabitants collected to consult building another, upon 
a more enlarged and convenient plan." Front of the 
schoolhouse "stood two large oaks growing like twin 
brothers or sisters, standing upright, with branches above 
their reach, yielding abundance of acorns for play-things; 
and the beautiful shade was the place where the scholars 
played Pound the Ring and Thread the Needle." 

Amongst the early teachers in the Little Brown School- 
house was Oliver Root, who taught in the winter of 1770, 
receiving thirty-six shillings per month. The same year 
summer schools were kept at Zebediah Allis'; Mrs. Abi- 
gail Carver's; Lieutenant Clapp's and Ebenezer Marsh's. 
Aaron Estabrooke taught ten months in 1773. 

School was kept for several years in the old meeting- 
house north of the common. The late Joseph Clapp, Jr., 
and his wife Sarah remembered going to school there. 
The meetinghouse was destroyed by a mob in 1834. Part 
of the old schoolhouse was moved to the Dr. Cobb place 
by Gideon Bartlett for a wagon shed. The other part 
is built into the Everett Scott house in the lane north of 
the town hall. This was in 1842. But for a few years 
the old schoolhouse stood intact in a temporary resting 
place as a storage, west of the street at the south end of the 
common. 

The new schoolhouse had two stories. It is the build- 
ing which afterwards was remodeled into the pocket- 



218 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

book factory of Emil Weisbrod about 1873; then into a 
tenement house in the '80's ; and is now owned by William 
Griesbach, next the "white church." The upper story 
was first used as a hall. As the pupils increased, all over 
ten years, fifty-two at one time, were assigned the upper 
room. 

After the school at the Center was well established, the 
usual fund raised by the town for schooling was $250. In 
1800 this was raised to $264; and 1801 to $300. 

In 1812, the Canal District (Montague City) was set 
off with a separate school. Little schoolhouses now be- 
gan to be built all over town. This was the beginning of 
the "deestric" school system with us. The North west 
schoolhouse is mentioned in 1815. This stood on the 
Montague City road near the Oakman place, in view of 
the river and was a landmark to the boatmen steering 
up the crooked channel of "School meadow flats." 
Louise Rowe remembered a schoolhouse in the Tajt dis- 
trict, on the hill this side the mouth of Miller's river in 
1816. In 1819 Simeon Remington was chosen a sepa- 
rate committee for the Turners Falls district. In 1821, 
the brick schoolhouse on Federal street, opposite the Dea- 
con Clapp place, was built at a cost of $429.50. The 
South district was formally set off in 1823, and included 
all the territory south of a line running from the mouth of 
Sawmill river to the bridge on the North Leverett road. 
Nathaniel Gunn and Solomon Root were the first com- 
mittee. The present schoolhouse there seems to have 
been built some time before, by the people of the district, 
who recovered a part of the cost from the town when they 
were set off. In 1828 the West district was set off. The 
schoolhouse stood at the northern foot of Taylor hill on 
the triangle between the "meadow" and Taylor hill roads. 



BOOK XIV. EDUCATION 219 

By 1836 the districts were quite definitely defined 
throughout the town and numbered as follows : 

No. 1— the "Center" school. 

No. 2— "East Center" (Federal street). 

No. 3— "South" (By George Toomer's). 

No. 4— "West" (By Oscar Rice's). 

No. 5 — "Northwest" (Near Bard well's Landing). 

No. 6— "Montague Canal" (City). 

No. 7— "North" (mouth of Miller's river). 

No. 8— "Dry Hill," or "East." 

No. 9— "Southeast" (Chestnut Hill). 

No. 10 — "Lafayette" (at Gunn's brook southeast of 
Harvey hill). 

No. 11— "Turners Falls." 

During the winter of 1836, the town hall was rented for 
$5.83 a quarter to a select school, which seems to have been 
the egg which hatched our high school. 

In the early days instruction in singing had been paid 
for by the town as an assistance to the public worship. 
But there was so much trouble collecting the tax from 
Baptists and other dissenters, this fell into private hands. 
So in 1836 we find the town renting the town hall for six 
cents an evening to a singing school. 

In 1838 the school near Martin Grout's comes up for con- 
sideration as a district. This was probably descended 
from the ancient "Country Road school;" and with the 
"North" or Taft school comprise the Millers Falls dis- 
trict of to-day. 

May 22, 1869, the school property of the town was ap- 
praised as follows: Center $1500, West $900, Northwest 
$300, City $1200, Grout's $150, Dry Hill $75, Chestnut 
Hill $550, Lafayette $150, South $75, Federal street $450, 
Miller's River $450. 



220 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

And it was voted to build a new schoolhouse at Turners 
Falls. Now Turners Falls was on the eve of growing from 
a boating station to a manufacturing city. H. W. Rowe, 
N. E. Babbitt, Alpheus Moore, were chosen as a build- 
ing committee. A lot was secured on the corner of 
Avenue A and 3d street, 110x50, then relocated; and the 
cost was estimated $1800. The building burned in 1871 
and was replaced with a brick building costing $14,000. 
R. N. Oakman, G. L. Rist and N. Gilmore were the build- 
ing committee. 

January 20, 1871, it being proposed to establish a high 
school at the Center, this committee was chosen to report 
the matter: John Andrews, David Cronyn, Thaxter Shaw, 
E. A. Deane, Seymour Rockwell. They recommended 
$10,000 for a building that would accommodate a high, 
an intermediate and a primary grade. Alpheus Moore, 
N. E. Babbitt, J. C. Andrews, R. L. Goss and Isaac 
Chenery were chosen to build the same. But the press- 
ing need of Millers Falls coming up, it was voted, April 8, 
to postpone building the Center schoolhouse and appro- 
priate $2500 for a building at Millers. A. W. Grout, 
Charles Amidon and Edward Conant were the committee 
for this. Then in March, 1872, $8000 was appropriated, 
together with the proceeds of the sale of the old school- 
house to Mr. Weisbrod, to build the new building at the 
Center. November 5, it was found necessary to add 
$2000 to this fund. 

The plan of transporting children from the outlying 
districts was first adopted in March, 1875. I have 
been told that it was the idea of Seymour Rockwell 
and that this was the original town to adopt such a 
system. 

May 27, 1879, it was voted to build a schoolhouse at the 



BOOK XIV. EDUCATION 221 

South End in Turners Falls, and to raise and appropriate 
$3000 for the same. 

In 1880 a schoolhouse was built at the Falls at a cost 
of $6000. And in 1889 $10,000 was spent for another. 

In 1893, a $300 extension and a $2000 heating plant 
were added to the Center school. 

In 1897, the town adopted the provision for professional 
supervision of schools. 

In 1910 the town had invested in school property 
$167,475, the valuation of ten buildings with land. The 
last addition to the plant in 1905 was a new high school 
at Turners Falls, valued at $63,000. There are besides, 
four large graded schools at Turners Falls as follows : The 
Oakman, grades 7 and 8; New Eighth Street, 5 and 6; 
Old Eighth Street, 3 and 4; Central Street, 1 and 2. The 
South End school, also at the Falls, has grades 1 to 6. The 
other schools are Montague City, grades 1 to 8; Millers 
Falls, grades 1 to 9; and the Center, grades 1 to 13 includ- 
ing in the upper grades the new Agricultural School, which 
superseded the Center high school in 1908. The little 
school on distant Dry Hill is the sole survivor of the old 
district school system. Night schools were opened in 1909 
at Millers and Turners. In 1910 the town of Montague 
will have paid out about $45,000 for current expenses of 
its highly organized schools. 

Several periods of development are quite distinctly to 
be seen in the history of our schools. The first may be 
called the provincial period, the reign of the master and 
dame, a winter master at the center and an itinerant 
dame in the summer. 

After 1815 the dame school rapidly crystallized into 
the district school. The master's school gradually disap- 
peared. The provincial schools taught the "three R's" 



222 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

only, "Reading, Riting, and Rithmetic," the New Eng- 
land Primer, Webster's Speller, and Pike's Arithmetic. 

The chief object of the Pilgrim Fathers' coming to these 
shores, as stated by themselves, was not "freedom to wor- 
ship God." They already had that in perfection in Hol- 
land, with prosperity besides. They came here to pre- 
serve their English tongue. And to this function the pro- 
vincial school was devoted; and added the rudiments of 
mathematics. 

With the advent of the district school and more months 
of schooling, other subjects became optional with teachers 
and pupils, while the "three R's" remained the prescribed 
studies. The writer received all his elementary education 
in the district school. Up to 1880, or for a period of 
more than half a century there was very slight change in 
this system, excepting that more and more stress was put 
upon arithmetic and less upon language. In my school 
days we "ciphered" the whole of the forenoon, in the 
upper classes. In the afternoon besides reading and spell- 
ing we had anything we pleased, U. S. History, Grammar, 
Geography, Algebra, Geometry, Natural Philosophy, 
Book-keeping, etc., if enough could agree on a subject to 
form a class or the teacher were indulgent to the solitary 
pupil who thought him or herself competent to branch out. 
By fits and starts, as pleased the teacher, we had half 
days given to declamation, and half hours given to prac- 
ticing writing in the copy book. But it seems to me I 
just "ciphered," often in school and out, all my school 
days through. I had two good winters in which I de- 
voured the whole subject of political and physical geog- 
raphy, from primary to high school grade; and about the 
same time got a smattering of Geometry and Book- 
keeping; and a little later a modicum of Algebra, sufficient 



BOOK XIV. EDUCATION 223 

to give me a college condition on the subject six years 
later. But I do not remember that I ever had any op- 
portunity to learn anything else on any subject at dis- 
trict school. And our schools were considered to be of the 
best. 

The best thing I remember about the district schools, 
after twenty-seven years, is the personality of some of our 
teachers, loving, loyal, and ambitious for us. I do not 
think that the teaching in itself amounted to very 
much. 

In the third period, method has been introduced into 
teaching. Teachers and pupils have been subjected to a 
system laid out for them, studies and pupils graded, rank- 
ing introduced, generalship, psychological method of ap- 
proach to the pupil's mind. All was changed. We had 
a wonderful machine; but the question has been more and 
more insistently asked in the last ten years, " What are we 
doing with it?" "As with our industrial machines," the 
answer came, "not as much to the point as we would 
like." 

When music and drawing were introduced it was the 
thin edge of a third revolution in public school education. 
And that is the revolution that is everywhere at its height 
now. We are coming rapidly to an education by doing 
things and learning to think correctly about what we do 
and to feel right about it. 

Another educational institution flourished in Montague 
in the '40's and '50's, the Lyceum. But there was no library 
until after the Civil war. Some towns established "as- 
sociation" libraries soon after the Revolution. The chief 
credit for Montague's original public library is due to a 
stranger among us, a Miss Bailey who was a teacher in 
the Center school in 1868. She collected some books and 



224 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

by the proceeds of a fair secured $1000. This fund was 
put into the hands of a library committee, consisting of 
Rev. Edward Norton, Dr. E. A. Deane, Thaxter Shaw, 
Isaac Chenery, Rev. David Cronyn, W. W. Thayer, 
Benjamin Fay, and R. N. Oakman. These tendered the 
library to the town, which accepted it as a town institution 
and voted to provide a place for it. This was March 11, 
1869. The directors chosen were Rev. E. Norton, Rev. 
D. Cronyn, Dr. E. A. Deane, R. N. Oakman, J. H. Root. 
One dollar a year was charged each family using the books. 
"Poor families" were charged twenty-five cents a quarter, 
fifty cents for six months. At the end of ten years there 
were 1700 volumes. 

March, 1874, it was voted to establish a library in 
Turners Falls, when $500 should be privately subscribed. 
In 1876 a library was maintained privately in the Colle 
building. One thousand books were accumulated during 
the next three or four years. The town appropriated some 
money for it but did not regularly establish the Turners 
Falls branch of the town library until March 6, 1887. At 
the same time this was done both branches were made free. 
Six hundred dollars was appropriated for the whole li- 
brary. 

In 1903, a third branch was established at Millers Falls. 
In the same year $12,500 was accepted from Andrew 
Carnegie, the well-known library founder, for a building 
at Turners Falls. The town issued bonds for an equal 
amount and agreed to devote $1250 annually to mainte- 
nance. In 1906 Mr. Carnegie added $1000 to his gift on 
condition that the town give $100 more, annually, for 
support of the library. The town is now spending $2500 
a year for its libraries. 

Thus it is seen that Montague has plodded away me- 



BOOK XIV. EDUCATION 



225 



thodically, faithfully, progressively through more than one 
hundred and fifty years to build up its educational sys- 
tem. At present the eyes of the state are focussed upon 
its advanced position. 




Book XV ■+ Religion 

THE first meetinghouse, begun in 1753 or '54, was a 
number of years in process of building. October 3, 
1757, it was voted "to finish the body of the meeting 
house all with pews except two or three short seats in the 
body near against the end doors." Lieutenant Clapp, 
Deacon Keet and Ebenezer Sprague were chosen a com- 
mittee "to determine the manner, place and largeness of 
said pews and seats and to plan out the same." It was 
not until 1760 that the meetinghouse was underpinned 
and the back finished under the direction of Lieutenant 
Clapp, Clark Alvord, and Reuben Scott. A belfrey and 
spire were added in 1802, for which Joseph Clapp, Sr., was 
paid $390. 

The meetinghouse, now being complete, let us take a 
look at it. Says Mrs. Haskins, "it had folding doors on 
the east, south, and west sides. In the north side, was 
the pulpit; with two long narrow windows and a plain 
seat beneath them, desk in front with a swing seat at- 
tached for the convenience of the aged pastor while he 
performed the services of the day. Over his head was a 
large half circle with pannel work about the edge, which 
was called the 'mending board.' On the floor below, 
almost under the desk, was a seat, in front of which was 
a breast-work to which was attached in front a long 
swing table for the services of the Church. This was 
called the Deacon's seat, where they were always found 
on the Sabbath. From the front door you turn, after 
passing the wall pews, to the right and left into alleys, at 



BOOK XV. RELIGION 227 

the ends of which are stairs leading into the galleries, 
where were two long rows of seats, near the center, the 
front seats reserved for the accommodation of the singers. 
On three wall sides were square pews for the young people 
of the congregation. Under the pulpit was the place where 
the military stores were kept, which was a doleful place 
to the scholars. It was called the dungeon, which was 
very terrifying whenever the door was opened for the 
unruly to enter. On the north, outside of the house, 
were two horse blocks, one of which was reserved for the 
old 'Parson' and 'Madam.' These were then thought 
respectful terms. The Parson on the saddle, with his 
cocked up hat, small clothes, long stockings and large 
buckles in his shoes. The Parson on the saddle, Madam 
on the blue pillion behind. To give the people notice that 
it was time to go to church, Uncle Moses, the blacksmith, 
or some of his family would blow a large sea-shell, the 
sound resembling that of a trumpet (the shell is still in 
being, in 1873). The blacksmith being the only man in 
the neighborhood that owned a clock, and that whittled 
out in the garret with a knife by an apprentice, as he stole 
away from the shop unbeknown to his master till it was 
completed, which was a family time-piece more than thirty 
years." 

The Rev. Judah Nash was ordained and settled over 
the Hunting Hills church, November 22d, 1752. He was 
a native of Longmeadow and a graduate of Yale in the 
class of 1748. He was a stripling of twenty-three. He 
continued to preach for fifty-two years and three months. 

Religious life in those early years of this town had the 
emphasis upon faithfulness, loyalty, affection, and all 
those virtues that make of the church a community. 
There were no revivals, no special manifestations such as 



228 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

came later. The earlier Puritans made efforts to ascer- 
tain whether the candidate for church membership had 
passed through any experiences of "supernatural regener- 
ation." But gradually by "half-way covenants" and 
other laxities a subscription to the creed came to be the 
only test for admission to the church. And that was about 
the way it was in Judah Nash's day. 

The minister was a priest of the established church, 
with authority vested in him by the state to correct moral 
delinquents by sharply admonishing them. His advice 
was official and was respected on almost every subject. 
He labored to develop in his parish extreme sensitiveness 
of conscience against every known form of evil. This was 
the very worthy expert function of the Puritan divine. 
His ethics were democratic and Christian; for he held 
passionately that the citizen has no master or lord but 
God . He was bound affectionately to his flock as a shep- 
herd, as a spiritual wife, till death should them part. He 
was buried in the old burying ground and his wife years 
after him amongst the people to whom a life service and af- 
fection had been given, the first and last Puritan divine in 
this place. 

When he came to Hunting Hills, there were about two 
hundred souls in the parish. He saw it grow, by the slow 
process of clearing and breaking hill land, to twelve hun- 
dred. Like the good parson's parish in Chaucer's Canter- 
bury Tales, 

Wide was his parish and houses far asunder, 

embracing more than thirty-six square miles, divided by 
trackless hills and swamps, and at one place by a three 
mile open plain, into five or six partly dismembered dis- 



BOOK XV. RELIGION 229 

tricts. Yet his obligations as recipient of the tax rate of 
all were to all. The life was necessarily full of formality 
and method, and still very close to the people and full of 
loyal sentiment. He was a scholar, with a tenacious mem- 
ory, versed in church history and so steeped in the Bible 
that he habitually talked and thought in Scripture phrase- 
ology. He was very dignified but not a pompous man. 
The Springfield, Chapin sculpture of the Puritan (while 
being a speaking piece of art) is a caricature of the Judah 
Nash type of Puritan, and probably of most Puritans. He 
presided graciously at most of the conventions of the 
church in this region; and at the time of his death it is 
said that he had delivered the charge to most of the sur- 
viving ministers in this vicinity. 

In theology, Judah Nash was a hair splitter, an accom- 
plished logician full of "scripture arguments," a terror to 
"cavillers," "infidels" and "fatalists." 

His home was a typical haven of 18th century hospitality, 
such as was when people took time to be social, whatever 
happened. Mr. Nash was a good listener, not antagoniz- 
ing opinions. He was saved by a gracious feeling; and 
thoroughly enjoyed himself with persons of good humor; 
of moral enthusiasm of any sort; or who knew anything 
to talk about. 

A good part of this information we get from the printed 
funeral sermon by Rev. Joseph Kilburn of Wendell. Said 
Mr. Kilburn in closing, "the candle of life, which so long 
shone in the candlestick of our Lord, is now extinguished," 
having (as we might add), during his pastoral vigils here 
consumed $300 worth of candle-wood, and upwards of 
three thousand five hundred loads of firewood by true rec- 
ord of the parish. 

They saw in him a resemblance to the vicar in Gold- 



230 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

smith's poem and carved some verses of it on his stone. 
He certainly was more related to the medieval priest than 
to the modern Congregational minister. 

Ever ready to hear affliction's cry, 
And trace his Maker's will with curious eye, 
He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 
Allur'd to brighter worlds and led the way; 
At church, with meek and unaffected grace, 
His looks adorned the venerable place. 

To this were added two original, sententious lines: 

Tutor'd by thee, sweet Christianity exalts thy voice to ages; 
And informs the rising generation with love, sentiment and thought 
never to die. 

Rev. Aaron Gates succeeded Mr. Nash in 1807. He 
was a native of East Hadam, Connecticut; a graduate of 
Williams college in the class of 1804. He derived his 
knowledge of divinity from the Rev. Dr. Lathrop of West 
Springfield, with whom he studied, the writer of 5000 
sermons in sixty -five years; but his pastoral theology he 
got from Jonathan Edwards of Northampton and Stock- 
bridge. He was a frail man physically, all fire and emo- 
tion. Judah Nash had been the grand old man, a fine 
reverend gentleman of the "old school," all sweetness and 
light, wearing character in his bearing and in his face. He 
pushed his way patiently, insistently into the conscience 
and there thundered the law of Sinai. He wound ten- 
drils of love and duty around the hearts of all and by force 
of his own aspirations lifted his people with him towards 
righteousness. 

With the Rev. Aaron Gates it was no such matter. He 
was moulded by the Great Revival, which followed the wake 



BOOK XV. RELIGION 231 

of Jonathan Edwards. He began life by condemning and 
torturing his own soul (for years after he had fully deter- 
mined to prepare for the ministry) as that of an unre- 
generate lost sinner. It was some time before he left 
college, that he believed he had the evidence of his redemp- 
tion. He religiously eschewed philosophy and all specula- 
tive thinking " made in Germany " and stuck to the " home 
made" product of New England, which he regarded as 
more scriptural and therefore of greater "integrity" as to 
doctrine. " Back to the elder Puritans " was his motto, the 
Puritans who stopped Maypoles and Dancing and intro- 
duced the recreation of meditating upon eternity and death 
and hell. He frequently told young persons who wanted 
to join the church and expressed tender hearts towards 
things holy and against all wickedness, "not to deceive 
themselves;" for that they were most probably damned; 
that he could "see no good evidence of their regeneration." 
He said he "could see no good in encouraging false hopes." 
His manner of preaching was so earnest that his tears 
streamed upon the pulpit. He was often quite effective. 
In the ninth year of his ministry he was rewarded by 
seeing a bona fide revival by which he took twenty-one 
members into the church. This was in 1816. After that, 
revivals were prayed for and expected at irregular inter- 
vals. Another occurred in 1819 when thirteen persons 
were "regenerated;" in 1822, twenty-nine. There was 
one revival under Mr. Bradford in 1831; and others in 
1839, 1847, 1853 and so on up to recent times. 

Mr. Gates finished his labors here in 1827 in the midst 
of the Unitarian upheaval which had reduced the church 
to beggary so that it had to receive home missionary aid 
for some years both before and after disestablishment. 

The religious history of the town from this point on 



232 



HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 



becomes the story of sects, more or less in rivalry and 
competition for a steadily waning class of habitual and 
regular church goers. 

The Unitarian church at the Center has led an inter- 
mittent life since the early years. A Catholic church was 
established at Millers Falls in the '70's; a Congregational 
church in 1872. The Baptists organized at Turners the 
same year and have held the ground. The German 
Methodists and Congregationalists organized there in 
1875 and survive. The German Evangelical came in 
1879; Unitarians in 1884 and have given up. An Ameri- 
can Methodist church also built and gave up. St. Mary's 
in 1872 was the first Catholic church in the county. The 
French Catholic came along in 1885. In 1909 the Polish 
Catholics bought the property of the Unitarians. A pretty 
good feeling exists between all the denominations. 




Book XVI-+ Visions 

I AM now to speak of a few matters in a light that 
appeals to the imagination; and gives Montague an al- 
most unique and distinguished place in the histories of the 
little commonwealths of New England. I do not believe 
any equal plot of New England ground has had so many 
varied visions, at different times, under such varied cir- 
cumstances, of a golden age waiting for it in the future. 
Perhaps this vision of future greatness is the very thing 
that has kept her people plodding so faithfully through the 
centuries, paving the way for some king of glory. Nature 
itself marked this patch of valley, surrounded by gorges 
and steep hills and myriad rushing streams as an especially 
desirable place in which to live. 

The earliest of these visions is but shadowy in its out- 
lines. In the spring of 1675, King Philip, that wonderful 
Indian dreamer took up his residence here, it is supposed 
on Smead's island, a mile below Turners Falls; built a fort 
there; surrounded himself with his faithful Narragansetts, 
the Nip mucks, and the broken remnants of the Pocumtuck 
Confederacy and from this place as his capital, laid active 
plans to build his Indian empire. Northfield in the rear 
was to be the safe retreat for the wounded Indians of his 
war and for the women and children. The meadows from 
Vermont to Deerfield were planted with corn and Con- 
onchet, a sachem as great as Philip, risked his life and 
lost it in an expedition to bring away the seed corn from 
the Narragansett country to this new empire. It is re- 
lated by those who were with Philip at this time that he 



234 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

had not the least doubt that his vision would come 
true. 

The next vision related to the year 1797 when the Mon- 
tague locks and canal were but a few years old. Montague 
had been much advertised abroad through the efforts to 
raise foreign capital, particularly in Holland, the banking 
country of the world at that time, to build the canals. 
What glories of the spot got into the speech of the agents 
as they discoursed upon the traffic and wonders of the 
far away Connecticut valley, we can only guess. But it 
is certain that some particular argument or appeal to the 
imagination fixed upon the head of deep water navigation 
on the river as the seat of a great commercial city, another 
Tyre or Bagdad. Pursuing this vision across the Atlantic 
ocean, a company of adventurers came from Germany 
and secured title to a good deal of land around the foot 
of Montague canal, and began building their city. I have 
been told that there is somewhere extant a drawn plan 
of Montague City as then dreamed of. But I have 
searched and cannot find it. I understand it was some- 
thing magnificent in dimensions, we can imagine it with 
great stone piers along the river from Bardwell's landing 
to Greenfield bridge for handling wares from every part of 
the world. We may imagine the promontories jutting 
out from the high plain adorned with beautiful facades of 
colleges and spires of cathedrals and the meadows, to In- 
dian dam, threaded with streets and swarming with men, 
and miles of factories up the serpentine banks of the river. 
Here we can picture men coming to great commercial 
houses for their annual contracts of goods, from the north- 
ern valleys, from the Green mountains, the White moun- 
tains and the Berkshires. Here we may see great theatres 
and varied amusements and various conventions for all 



BOOK XVI. VISIONS 235 

central and northern New England, in this Babylon of 
the hills. Here the Germans would establish their learn- 
ing; and great libraries, museums and institutes would be 
endowed; and Captain Elisha Mack would become presi- 
dent of a great polytechnic university. Great authors 
would establish the glory of the city; and poets would 
sing the charm of the hills, meadows, river. 

But only a few two story houses were built in carrying 
out this vision. The hamlet that grew up there was for 
years known as Montague Canal. But as time went by 
the vision had sufficient interest to the inhabitants to 
give the name of "The City" to this little village. In 
1855 the wood working mills of R. L. and D. W. Goss were 
the most important manufacturing interest in town. They 
sawed and planed a million feet of lumber, made three 
hundred piano cases annually and handled twelve hundred 
cords of wood. In 1869 this establishment was running a 
grist mill, three planers and several small saws besides the 
one large mill saw. The firm employed seventy -five men. 
The business closed out some time before 1875. Nothing 
remains of its plant except the old brick chimney stack 
near the tow path of the ruined canal near the lower 
course of Papacomtuckquash. There are large brick 
yards still a few hundred rods to the north and, close by, 
the prosperous fishing rod works of Hazelton & Bartlett, 
the largest little thing of the kind in the United States. 
A flourishing little village has grown up around these 
newer enterprises. But of the "City" there is nothing 
but the name. 

The next vision that came to Montague centered in 
the northern part of the town, further to the eastward. 
This was about 1844, and was called into being by the 
approach of the first railroad into these parts. As origi- 



236 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

nally planned, the railroad was to go no further west than 
Montague. It was well known that Colonel Crocker had 
his eye fixed upon the unlimited water powers of the Con- 
necticut river and tributaries in this locality. The rail- 
road was actually built to Grout's corner and thence up 
the Connecticut to Brattleborough. According to Mr. 
Crocker's plan, Grout's corner or the mouth of the Miller's 
river would have been the center of a great manufacturing 
community, the circumference of which would have been 
a circle running through Northfield Farms, Factory Vil- 
lage, Montague City, Montague Center and Farley. The 
citizens of Montague responded very eagerly to this grand 
scheme to make their town the manufacturing center of 
New England as it was in a way the geographical center. 
Certainly the water power was here, the greatest collection 
of water falls within small area anywhere to be found. Un- 
doubtedly much more would have been done in Mr. 
Crocker's life time had it not been for the energetic and 
tireless distraction forced upon him by Greenfield men 
who also stirred up the whole western part of the state 
with the Greenfield and Troy scheme, which included the 
Hoosac tunnel. 

There is no question of what Montague thought of the 
Greenfield scheme and of their fear of not becoming the 
metropolis, perhaps the capital of the state. January 1, 
1844, it was "Resolved" (after some commendation of 
"The enlarged views of the grand enterprise" of Mr. 
Crocker) "that we view with regret the movements of 
the citizens of Greenfield to carry this improvement 
through their corner village, which to us appears to be 
founded in selfish motives disregarding the true and great 
interest of the whole county, while they look at im- 
mediate and remote consequences to themselves, pro- 



BOOK XVI. VISIONS 237 

vided they shall in this movement accomplish their 
designs. 

"Resolved, therefore, that we are opposed to any body 
of our fellow citizens from whatever motives, placing 
themselves in the way to obstruct, divert or finally pros- 
trate the grand enterprise and thereby prevent the citizens 
of the county from enjoying the proffered benefits through 
all future time. Therefore in view of these promises, 

"Resolved that we do hereby authorize the selectmen 
and town clerk in behalf of the town, to present a memorial 
to the legislature of the Commonwealth, with copy of 
these resolves attached, by the town clerk" (this was 
Jonathan Hartwell a gifted man and a lawyer who also 
represented the town in the legislature) " in conformity to 
the spirit of these resolutions, who is herby authorized, 
to make a record of same in the town book of records." 

Here is something more than a tempest in a teapot. 
We see here the collision of two opposing visions of tremen- 
dous consequences to the whole of New England which- 
ever way it was decided. We known that Greenfield won, 
defeated Montague (at least for a hundred years) used 
up and broke Colonel Crocker's splendid energies and 
diverted his vision upon Hoosac tunnel and Western trade. 
History has recorded the further consequences. Hoosac 
tunnel, while we are very proud of it as one of the great 
artificial wonders of our state, has never been worth what 
it cost. And if the western railroad ever did facilitate 
western trade, and we have no doubt it did by its easier 
grade than that through Springfield, it just so far con- 
tributed to the ruin of New England agriculture. 

It was unquestionably a good thing to get into closer 
and closer touch with the west. And yet Montague's 
challenge to the scheme then proposed was to the point. 



238 HISTORY OF MONTAGUE 

It was, " Shall we do it now at this frightful cost of life 
and treasure and worst of all the expense of this great 
genuis of Mr. Crocker and to the undoing of the East, 
and particularly of this county, the most rural and remote 
of Massachusetts with the greatest water power lying 
totally undeveloped, waiting a hundred years for just 
such a promise as the coining of John Alvah Crocker?" 
Fellow citizens, I feel that Montague was right and that 
Greenfield led us a wild goose chase in this matter. 
Hoosac tunnel took forty-eight years to build, from the 
time the Greenfielders broke the first rock at the east 
portal; cost nearly thirteen million dollars, and one hun- 
dred and thirty-six lives. And when it was done, almost 
every town which had been promised prosperity (Green- 
field being almost the sole exception) began rapidly to de- 
cline in population and in valuation. The Montague 
counter proposition, Colonel Crocker's own first thought 
and his latter vision, when he returned in his last declin- 
ing days from tunnel boring to found Turners Falls, is 
worth considering. 

At any rate, Montague has seldom been as much 
wrought up over anything. Ten days after the resolu- 
tions quoted in part, another town meeting was held and 
more lengthy and specific arguments were presented. 
From these it appears what the Miller's river vision was, 
more in detail. "Montague," they said, "is the exact 
center and heart of the county." The railroad, they 
declared, should go down Miller's river to the center of 
water power facilities, as I have described above, and 
thence direct north. The expensive Western scheme, 
even ten miles more road to Greenfield (particularly on 
account of Greenfield's delusive attitude) or any diversion 
whatever west of the river at present was declared irrele- 



BOOK XVI. VISIONS 



239 



vant to the original plan and injurious to the permanent 
interests of the whole county. And Montague again was 
right. If industrial development, the utilizing of our 
streams is a good thing for this county then Greenfield 
set it back one hundred years. For the energy of Colonel 
Crocker's twenty years devoted to Hoosac tunnel we 
know must have made of this region a leading manufactur- 
ing center. Of course, now, it is only a question of time 
when the promises of 1844 will be renewed by the energies 
and vision of others. 

It may come by plodding and by evolution, through the 
accumulation of many visions. Grout's corner at least 
has grown into the sizable village of Millers Falls by the 
vision of a man who found how to make a bit brace more 
useful than anything known in that line. And Turners 
Falls with the hearty cooperation of the whole town in 
the spirit of the resolutions of 1844 is plodding away at 
the vision now these forty years. The old town has newer 
visions of its own. There is a charm in the sky and the 
water falls here that leads to vision. And the future of 
human life here is enchanting to think about, is a beautiful, 
divine mystery, like my tale which is told. 





Map of Swafnpjield 

Dated December 2 1 , i 7 1 4 

Accompanying a petition for a strip of three miles 

additional on east side. 



APPENDIX 



Representatives from Montague 



R 



EPRESENTATIVES from Montague at the General Court from 

1774 to 1857 when Montague became a part of the 6th Dis- 
trict. 

Moses Gunn Martin H. Clapp 

Joseph Root Elisha Leffingwell 

Moses Harvey Elihu P. Thayer 

Caleb Kinsley Nathan Hosmer 

Henry Wells Joseph Clapp, Jr. 

Martin Root Alpheus Moore 

Nathan Chenery Erastus Andrews 

Medad Montague R. N. Oakman 

Helaz Alvord Zenas Clapp 

Jonathan Hartwell George Clapp 
Calvin Russell 



Town Clerks of Montague, 1756 to 1910 

Joseph Root, 1756-61 Salmon Root, 1821 

Moses Gunn, 1761-70, '71-81, '82 Solomon Root, 1822 

Elisha Root, 1770 Helaz Alvord, 1823-27 

Caleb Kinsley, 1781 Jonathan Hartwell, 1827-35, '42-52 

Joseph Root, Jr., 1783-1805 Lathrop Delano, 1835-37 

Moses Severance, 1805-09 E. W. Chenery, 1837-42 

Elisha Root, Jr., 1809-11, '12 J. C. Bangs, 1852-62 

Salmon Gunn, 1811 C. P. Wright, 1862-67 

Selah Root, 1813-18 J. H. Root, 1867-84 

Cephas Root, 1818-20 Wm. P. Crocker, 1884 

Isaac Chenery, 1820 W. S. Dana, 1885-95 
H. D. Bardwell, 1895-1910 



242 APPENDIX 



Selectmen of Montague, 1756 to 1910 

Captain Joseph Root, 1756-64, '66-68, '70-73 

Sergeant Samuel Bardwell, 1756, '58, '74-78 

Ensign Simeon King, 1756-58 

Clark Josiah Alvord, 1756-61, '65, '68-69 

Sergeant Samuel Smead, 1756-57, '59, '63-64, '66 

Ebenezer Marsh, 1757 

Lieutenant Reuben Scott, 1758-59, '65-66, '70, '72-73, '83, '88 

Lieutenant Carver, 1759 

Lieutenant John Clapp, 1760 

Dr. Moses Gunn, 1761-62, '65, '67, '69, '71, '74-79, '82-84 

Deacon John Gunn, 1762, '66, '77 

Nehemiah Church, 1763-64, '66 

Moses Severance, 1767, '70, '73 

Nathan Smith, 1768-69, '76-78 

Deacon Asahel Keet, 1771-72, '76, '88 

Ebenezer Billings, 1772 

Elijah Smith, 1772 

Stephen Tuttle, 1774-75 

Captain Asahel Gunn, 1776-77, '91-92 

Lieutenant Nathaniel Gunn, 1778-79, '81 

Deacon Israel Gunn, 1778, '80, '82, '85-87, '89-91, '93-95, '97-1801 

Gideon Bardwell, 1779 

Captain Benjamin Alvord, 1779, '81, '84-85 

Philip Ballard, 1779, '81 

Captrin Caleb Kinsley, 1780, '82, '86, '89 

Jonathan Loveland, 1780 

Elisha Root, 1783-84, '86-87 

Moses Root, 1784, '87, '89-93, '95, '98 

Captain Moses Severance, 1784, '88, '90, '96, 1802-04, '09-10, '21-22 

Jothan Death, 1785 

Medad Montague, 1792, '95, "97-98, 1807-14, '16-17, '20 

Captain Solomon Clapp, 1793-94, '96-97, '99-1801 

Lyman Taft, 1794 

Jonathan Root, 1796, '99-1801, '06 

Ezra Anderson, 1802, '04-06 

Martin Root, 1802-05, '12-13 



APPENDIX 243 



Samuel Wrisley, 1803, '11 

Captain Nathaniel Gunn, 1806 

Salmon Gunn, 1805, 1807-10, '12-14, '16-17, '19 

Nathan Chenery, 1807-08, '25 

Deacon Rodolphus Bardwell, 1814-16, '23-24, '30, '33-36 

Captain Spencer Root, 1815, '18, '25 

Colonel Benjamin Stout Wells, 1815, '18, '26-30, '36-37 

Silas Hosmer, 1818 

Abel Bancroft, 1819, '23, '35, '43-44, '49 

Jeremiah Pratt, 1819-28 

Jonathan Munsell, 1820-21 

Elihu Root, 1882 

Joseph Gunn, 1824 

Apollos Gunn, 1826, '33-34 

Martin H. Clapp, 1827, '31-33, '41-44, '49 

Charles Thurston, 1828-29 

Salmon Root, 1829-30 

John Davis, 1831-32 

Noadiah Montague, 1831-32 

Samuel Leland, 1834 

Ephraim Stearns, 1835 

Arza Bardwell, 1836, '45-46 

Martin Grout, 1837-39, '42 

Elihu P. Thayer, 1837-42 

E. L. Delano, 1838-39 

Erastus Root, 1840 

Eliphaz Clapp, 1840, '45-46 

E. W. Chenery, 1841 

Nathan Hosmer, 1843-48 

Samuel D. Bardwell, 1847 

William W. Thayer, 1847-48, '50, '64 

Bela Kellogg, 1848-49 

Abner Chandler, 1850 

R. N. Oakman, 1850-52, '56-63, '65-75, '87-88 

Alpheus Moore, 1851-52 

L. H. Stone, 1851-53, '57-59 

S. C. Wells, 1853-55 

Jesse Andrews, 1853-54 

Augustus L. Taft, 1854 



244 APPENDIX 



E. F. Gunn, 1855, '62-63 

Warren Bardwell, 1855-56 

Amos Adams, 1856, '66, '69-71 

B. F. Pond, 1857 

N. E. Babbitt, 1858 

S. S. Holton, 1859 

Sandford Goddard, 1860 

Deacon Richard Clapp, 1860-65 

Rodolphus Ball, 1861 

Seymour Rockwell, 1864 

Benjamin Fay, 1865 

J. H. Root, 1866-71 

Zebina Taylor, 1867 

W. A. Bancroft, 1868 

George Hance, 1872 

Edwin Desmond, 1872-82 

D. P. Abercrombie, 1873-74 

J. F. Bartlett, 1875-78, '83, 1903 

Gurdon Edgerton, 1876-78 

James A. Gunn, 1879 

Alden W. Grout, 1879-80, '83 

Samuel E. Ripley, 1880-82, '84-85 

Alson L. Weatherhead, 1881-83 

Jason Mann, 1884, '89 

Felix McCue, 1884-86 

Isaac Chenery, 1885 

Edgar L. Bartlett, 1886 

Robert M. Starbuck, 1886 

William H. Ward, 1887-88 

A. T. Bartlett, 1887-89 

D. F. Ripley, 1889 

H. D. Bardwell, 1890 

Truman H. Bartlett, 1890 

G. H. Goddard, 1891-94, '96-1900 

C. W. Hosmer, 1891-95, 1905 

Joseph E. Wait, 1891 

Solomon H. Amidon, 1892-95 

Erastus C. Coy, 1895 

Frank H. Giles, 1896-97, 1901-02 



APPENDIX 245 



C. W. Hazelton, 1896 

Allen C. Burnham, 1897, 1905-06 
Ralph L. Atherton, 1898-99 
Wm. R. Farnsworth, 1898 
John D. Lynch, 1899 
Fred E. Field, 1900-02, '05-07 
Frank Gerald, 1900-03, '09 

D. F. Daley, 1903-04, '06-08 
Richard L. Clapp, 1904 
John S. Hunt, 1904 
Martin Neipp, 1907-08 

G. M. Stratton, 1908 
L. T. Bartlett, 1909-10 
Napoleon L. Cote, 1909-10 
Austin M. Lawrence, 1910 



Moderators of Montague March Meeting 
1756-1910 

Eliphalet A His, 1756 

Simeon King, 1757 

John Clapp, 1758, '59, '60, '64, '68, '69 

Clark Alvord, 1761 

Joseph Root, 1762, '63, '65, '70, '71, '72, '73, '81, '82 

John Gunn, 1766, '67, '74, '76, '77, '78, '80, '85, '86 

Jeduthan Sawyer, 1775 

Moses Gunn, 1779 

Elisha Root, 1783, '84, '87 

Israel Gunn, 1788, '89, '90, '91, '93, '94, '97, '98, 1800, '01, '04, '06 

Caleb Kinsley, 1792, '96, 1802 

Samuel Bardwell, 1795, 1807, '09, '14, '17, '18, '20, '23 

Jonathan Root, 1799 

Martin Root, 1803-05 

Medad Montague, 1808, '10, '13 

Moses Severance, 1811 

B. S. Wells, 1812, '15, '16 

Joseph Gunn, 1819, '21, '22, '27 

Nathan Chenery, 1824 



246 APPENDIX 



Jonathan Hartwell, 1825 

Rodolphus Bardwell, 1826, '28, '29, '30, '31, '33, '34 

Salmon Root, 1832 

Ephraim Stearns, 1835 

Solomon C. Wells, 1836, '37, '67 

Martin Grout, 1838, '39, '41, '42, '43 

Benjamin Henry, 1840 

S. D. Bardwell, 1844, '46, '47, '51, '52, '54 

Alpheus Moore, 1848, '62, '75, '76, '78, '79, '80, '81, '82, '83 

Augustus L. Taft, 1845, '49, '50, '53 

C. W. Parker, 1855, '59, '61, '64, '66 

R. N. Oakman, 1856 

Isaac Chenery, 1863, '65, '71, '72, '73, '74, '77 

J. H. Root, 1857, '58 

Richard Clapp, 1860 

W. A. Bancroft, 1868 

Edwin Desmond, 1869, 1870 

Maurice O'Keefe, 1884 

C. W. Hazelton, 1885, '86, '87, '88, '91, '92, '94, '99 

John Mcllverne, 1889, '90 

Lucas J. March, 1893 

J. F. Bartlett, 1895, '97, 1901, '02, '06, '07 

M. B. Collins, 1896 

Timothy J. Carroll, 1898 

W. S. Dana, 1900 

Alfred J. Nims, 1903 

E. M. Alden, 1904, '05, '08 

John W. Haigis, 1909, '10 



Our Hall of Fame 

A CHAPTER under this title was designed. It was to offer a brief 
tale of the acts of twenty of the most famous folks who had lived 
in Montague. But afterwards I did not feel equal to the respon- 
sibility; and so I offer this list as an interesting hint. This, some day, 
may be added to and subtracted from and put up as a frieze in the town 
hall or historical room of the Carnegie library building. 

1. King Philip, Indian sachem, seer and reformer, according to 



APPENDIX 247 



tradition made Peskeomskut the center of his Indian commonwealth, 
with chief village and fortification at Smead's island; and was here with 
a thousand warriors for the struggle of May 19, 1676. 

2. Dr. Moses Gunn, patriot, eloquent, wise counsellor, was in every 
movement iD the state for saving the democratic constitution of the 
towns, during the period of the Revolution. 

3. Captain Moses Harvey, honest patriot. In his zeal for liberty 
he made the mistake of joining Shays' rebellion. When all offenders 
were pardoned he insisted upon taking his punishment of paying fifty 
pounds and standing an hour on the gallows at Northampton. Leader 
in the Baptist movement for general franchise, on Committee of Corres- 
pondence, minuteman, representative in the legislature. 

4. Dr. Henry Wells, healer in whom the people of this county had 
wonderful faith, noted particularly for staying the plague of dysentery in 
1802, a magnetic personality. 

5. Captain Elisha Mack, mechanical engineer, discoverer of the 
cantilever bridge, built the first dam on Connecticut river, at Turners 
Falls in 1793. 

6. Dexter Marsh, tireless collector of fossil sandstone tracks, "the 
American Hugh Miller," in the science of geology; member of the Amer- 
ican Association for Advancement of Science, member of the Lyceum of 
Natural History, N. Y., corresponding member of the Academy of Nat- 
ural Science in Philadelphia. He worked all his life as janitor, sawed 
wood, made gardens, etc., and spent his holidays on the river collecting 
fossils. His scientific collection, sold at auction after his death, brought 
nearly nine thousand dollars. 

7. Reverend Walter Gunn, distinguished missionary to India. 
The facts of his life have been told in a biography of 150 pages. 

8. Jonathan Johnson, historian, tireless investigator of traces of 
the aborigines, collector of relics, chief founder of the "Indian room" in 
Memorial Hall, Deerfield. 

9. E. Benjamin Andrews, educator, president of Brown University, 
superintendent of Chicago schools, chancellor of the University of Ne- 
braska. 

10. Honorable Charles B. Andrews, justice of the Supreme Court 
of Connecticut, sometime governor of the same state and leader on the 
floor of the house of representatives. 

11. R. N. Oakman, model citizen, for quarter of a century leading 
town father, financier, distinguished for system of caring for town poor. 



248 APPENDIX 



12. Seymour Rockwell, nearly forty years member of the school 
board, a power for a wisely progressive system of public schools; is said 
to have originated concentration and grading of country schools; a 
richly stored mind. 

13. Henry Root, artist, distinguished painter of stage scenery. 

14. Dr. Cornelia Clapp, zoologist, teacher in Mt. Holyoke College, 
noted traveler amongst American foreign missions. 

15. Elder Erastus Andrews 



> state senator. 



16. Sanford Goddard 

17. J. H. Root 

18. Joseph F. Bartlett 

19. Clapp Wells \ 

20. Isaac Chenery hi S h sheriff of Franklin County. 



Latest Indian Finds 

SINCE this volume went to press two significant discoveries have 
become known to the writer. 

Rufus Thornton in the early summer unearthed an Indian 
"kitchen heap" in the lot between Domer's Lane and the Central Ver- 
mont railroad near the Harvey hill road. The heap contained an arrow 
point, pieces of war paint or cosmetic, a broken stone knife blade and 
numerous scraps of highly ornamented pottery. 

William Marsh has shown me two Indian sacred symbol stones, figur- 
ing seemingly the spread wings of the "thunder bird," the war god, one 
very rare with eye pierced for standard, the other slightly carved to sug- 
gest feathers, both beautiful. These relics were found at different times 
within the same circle of ground which seems to have been made softer 
and clearer of stones than the surrounding gravel, one hundred rods 
east of Willis hill, west of Lake Pleasant, in the middle of Montague 
Plain, at the point where Kunckwadchu, the sacred mountain most im- 
pressively punctuates a wide horizon of hills when the August sun or 
the February moon is highest in the heavens. We guess that this was 
an important ceremonial place. The dreamy King Philip may have been 
consulting his dusky oracles on this very spot the night of Captain Tur- 
ner's descent upon Peskeomskut. For it is recorded that the Indians 
were celebrating a period of festival in their old haunts. 



APPENDIX 249 



Conventicles {A Footnote to Book VI) 

1HAVE just heard a story of the Rev. Aaron Gates, commonly called 
"Priest Gates," which illustrates the difference between the estab- 
lished church, whether Catholic, Episcopalian, or Congregational, 
and the mild appeal to character and feeling of to-day. Some people 
were holding a meeting by night, possibly a Baptist prayer meeting or a 
Unitaiian study club or yet perchance an Episcopalian vestry, in some 
outlying schoolhouse. The quivering form, like a wraith, of Priest 
Gates suddenly glided from the shadows of the doorway. With right 
hand uplifted he advanced, with all eyes upon him, to the center of the 
open floor and in the name of God, the Son, and the Holy Ghost and 
by the authority vested in him by the Commonwealth of Massachu- 
setts dissolved the assembly. His uplifted arm and his whole body 
scarcely moved until the last sullen file, too rebellious for protest had 
dissolved into the outside shadows, and he turned to meet the muttered 
indignation of the leader of the "conventicle" with biting words of scrip- 
ture, unanswerable — unless at the polls of free men. And then Priest 
Gates mounted his horse and rode away through the woods. The con- 
venticle as by instinct promptly leassembled in the long kitchen of Ju- 
dah Wright or the coopei 's shop of Thomas Bagg. Priest Gates left for 
his monument the Solley place now occupied by the Montague Agri- 
cultural School and commonly known by the name of Thaxter Shaw. 
The material was dug from the clay bank a few rods west in the ravine 
to make the most lordly place in Montague town. A few years later 
the "Red Church" was dug from the same bank. 



Route of Hatfield Captives 

ON the morning of September 19, 1777, the Indians, who had been 
scattered after Philip's war, descended upon Hatfield taking cap- 
tive seventeen persons, mostly women and children. On their 
route north through the ruins of Deerfield they captured Quentin Stock- 
well, discovered rebuilding his house. During the night the Indians 
crossed the Deerfield mountain, making "strange noises as of wolves 
and owls and other wild beasts, to the end that they might not lose one 
another; and if followed they might not be discovered by the English," 



250 APPENDIX 



says Stockwell. At daybreak they took their captives over the river to 
a point just below Montague City. There they made on the trees a 
record of their exploit, quarreled over ownership of the captives, and 
waited some time for a foraging band to come up with food and horses. 
From there they followed a trail to Peskeomskut Falls and there in the 
afternoon crossed the river again to the Gill shore. During this march 
through Montague Stockwell fainted from old wounds received in the 
Indian war and expected to be killed when he suddenly revived and 
marched away with the band into the northern woods. The Indians 
were a remnant of the Hadley tribe which once occupied a part of Mon- 
tague. They sold their English captives to the French. 



Lake Pleasant 

FOR forty years there has been growing up, in the center of the town 
but not of it, a summer camp of seveial hundred cottages. The 
New England Spiritualist Campmeeting Association has been the 
chief agent in building up this summer city. In a large airy hall in the 
grove it carries out an annual month's program. 

The first attention given to the Lake however was in 1870, when 
George W. Potter of Greenfield acquired land near the present railroad 
station on the lake shore, established a rude picnic outfit in the grove 
and started off with an old folks' outing from Greenfield. For four years 
the charming resort grew in favor for political and temperance conven- 
tions and holiday outings. Amongst the distinguished speakers imported 
in that period were General Benjamin Butler and Senator Henry Wilson. 

In 1872 Mr. Potter sold to the railroad company, who put up a dancing 
pavillion and railroad station with other accomodations and generally 
made the grounds serviceable and attractive to pleasure seekers, in- 
cluding the driving of "Jacob's Well." Throngs then resorted to the 
place from every quarter all over the county and adjoining country. 

In 1874 H. A. Buddington and Dr. Joseph Beals at the suggestion of 
J. J. Richardson, a caterer — all of Greenfield, became active in organ- 
izing a Spiritualist campmeeting to be held annually at the Lake. Con- 
sequently 75 tents, including a large bell tent for meetings, were soon 
pitched on the "Bluff" and "Montague street," in August that year. 
Im 1879 the campers, after five years of lively and very picturesque 
success, incorporated their organization with the present name. 



APPENDIX 251 



In 1880 a laige three story botel was built under the sanction of the 
Association by H. L. Barnard of Greenfield. The Association also ac- 
quired by lease the property in the grove belonging to the Fitchburg 
railroad. By this time 90 substantial cottages had been built and the 
whole of fifty acres divided into campers' lots and occupied. There were 
two thousand residents that year. The place became, in short, a Mecca 
for those of the Spiritualist cult. 

Id 1887 The Lake Pleasant Association, a new organization of the 
nature of an improvement society, bought the campmeeting grove for 
$15,000. Then having completed its work of providing many modern 
conveniences, including water works and an electric light plant, sold out 
to the Campmeeting Association and dissolved. 

On April 25, 1907, one of the sensations of this town was the burning 
of the hotel and pavillion at Lake Pleasant and about half of the cottages, 
in all 112 buildings. There remains, however, a good deal of vitality in 
the camp as well as power of fascinating beauty in this sacred lake of 
the Indians. For the past three years have seen a considerable rising 
from the ashes; and contracts have just been let for rebuilding the 
hotel. The attractions of the season just closed at the temple included 
many entertainments, musical, literary and dramatic. The spirit of the 
management has been liberal towards culture and live thinking of every 
brand. One cannot help thinking, if town and camp should some day 
think of pulling together, what an unusual chance for an ideal rural 
playground with a distinctive rural stage for literary and historic pag- 
eants and native drama. 



INDEX 



Note. — In cases of a lower page number following a higher, as 125, 28 
28, understand 126, 128, etc. 



Abandoned farms, 102 
Abbott, Kendall, 37 
Abenaki, 51, 66 
Abercrombie, D. P., 200 
Abolition, 37 
Adams, Amos, 165 

George F., 179 

Joel, 127 

Lieut. John, 127 

Lieut. Josiah, 127 

W. H., 180 

landing, 42 
Alexander, 104 
Allen Brothers, 203 

L., 135 

Myron B., 203 
Alliance, Women's, 213 
Ailing, Edward, Jr., 81 
Allinnackcooke, 57 
Allis, Eliphalet, 20, 86, 105, 109, 
125, 215 

Elisha, 27, 122 

William, 17, 20, 84, 86, 127 

Zebediah, 86, 109, 127, 217 
Alvord, Josiah Clark, 86, 105, 107, 



Amidon, Charles, 220 
Amherst & Belchertown R. R. 

General, 95 
Amsden, T. O., 178, 180 
Anabaptists, 112-115, 119 
Anarchy, absurd fears of, 114 
Andrews, Hon. Chas. B., 36 

E. Benjamin, 39 

Elder Erastus, 35, 38 

Emery P., 35 

J. L., 179 



146 



Andrews, Jesse, 190 

John, 220 

Moses, 132 
Angel of Hadley, 145 
Anti-slavery, 36, 174, 175 
Aristocracy, 109 
Arithmetic, Pike's, 216 
Armada, 145 
Arms, William, 83 
Armstrong, Deacon, 133 

Kate, 193 

D wight, 180 
Arnold, Christopher, 178-180 
Articles of Confederation, 129 
Arts & Crafts, 213 
Atwood, Philip, 179 
Aupaumut, 74 



B 

Babbitt, N. E., 220 
Bagnall, Cecil T., 200 
Bailey, Miss, 38, 223 
Baker, 84 

Daniel, 127 
Ballard, Daniel, 105 

David, 107 

Philip, 127 
Ball, Emery, 16 
Bancroft, Melvin, 207 
Bangs, Cephas, 190 
Banks, 200 

Bard well Ancestry, 189 
Bardwell, Arza, 188, 190 

Enoch, 20, 85, 89, 106 

Gideon, 19, 85, 89, 96 

Grant, 18, 19 

Guy, 177, 179, 180 



254 



INDEX 



Bardwell, Luther, 195 

Medad, 128 

Moses, 178, 180 

Robert, 19, 89 

Rodolphus, 118, 190 

Samuel, 19, 20, 85, 96, 105, 107, 
115, 125, 127, 132, 144, 190 

S. B., 135 

S. D., 35, 132, 140, 174, 194 

Warren, 19, 35, 116, 133, 139, 
188 

William E., 178, 186 
Barnes, Noah, 130 

Laureston, 180 
Barrett, Benjamin, 83, 86, 108 

Isaac, 86 

Jonathan, 86 
Bartlett, Edgar L., 36, 186 

Gideon, 217 

Joseph F., 38 
Bascom, John A., 177, 179, 180 
Battles, 181, 182 
Beeman, Daniel, 81 
Bell, 111 
Benjamin, Abel, 135, 190 

Caleb, 127 

D. A., 135 

Joel, 130 

Lieut., 129 
Bible, 152, 229 
Billings, Capt. Ebenezer 1st, 84, 86 

Ebenezer, Jr., 83, 86 

Fellows, 86 

John, 86 
Billings, Jonathan, 86 

Mill, 28, 57, 82 

Samuel, the smith, 83 

Samuel 2d, 86 
Bishop, Peter, 122 
Bissell, Gustavus, 35 
Blockhouse, 89 
Bloody morning, 144 
Blue laws, 112 
Bly's Debating Society, 36 
Boating, 153-158 
Bodman, Manoah, 84, 86 
Book of Martyrs, 145 
Borthrick, Til, 127 
Boston Store, 203 



Boswell, Dennis A., 177, 179, 180 
Boundary, 18, 110 
Bounty, animal, 143 

scalp, 89 

volunteer, 130, 131 
Boutwell, J. D., 177-179 

W. G., 178, 180, 181 
"Box," 151 

Bradford, Rev. Moses, 116, 231 
Brewer, Chas. C., 180 
Bricks, 188, 213 
Brick church, 108, 191, 195 
Bridges, 106-108, 119, 136-138, 

140 
Bridgman, James, 84 

Jonathan, 86 
Briggs, Col. Henry S., 181 
Brigham, Cephas, 35 

John, 86 
British goods, 125 
Britt, Oscar, 178, 180 

Patrick, 178, 179 
Brizzee, John, 180 

Levi, 178, 180, 181 
Brooks, 84 

John, 117, 127 

Moses, 127 
Brown schoolhouse, 143 
Bryce, historian, 104 
Bulkley, Jonathan, 200 

Moses, 200 
Bullum vs. Boatum, 151 
Burnham, 84 

Chas. K., 177, 178 

David, 127, 177-179 

E. D., 180 

Erastus, 177, 179 

Josiah, 127, 131 

rock, 148 
Burns, Joseph, 178, 180 
Bushnell, 84 



Caesars, 104 
Calumet, 71 

Cambridge, 126, 127, 128 
Canal, 41, 100, 147-165 



INDEX 



255 



Candy, 212 

Canning, Josiah D., 147, 148 
Canonchet, 81 
Captivity, 90, 197 
Carnegie building, 61, 224 
Carrying place, 136, 153 
Carver, Mrs. Abigail, 217 
Caswell, Sol, 165 

Otis E., 178, 180 
Center, 31 

Chapman, Matthew, 201 
Chapmen, 125 
Charter rights, 126 
Chauncey, Chas., 86 
Chenery, Hollis, 31 

Isaac, 38, 220, 224 

Nathan, 188 
Christian religion, 73 
Church, Samuel, 111 
Churches, 231 
Citizenship, 117 
Civil war, 39 
Clapp, 84 

Avery, 36, 174, 212 

C. A., 180 

Cyrus, 193 

Elihu, 193 

Eliphaz, 16, 190 

Elisha, 127 

Erastus, 194, 212 

Geo. A., 208 

Joseph, 31, 37, 194, 195, 217, 
226 

Lieut. John, 16, 26, 95, 108, 110, 
130, 217, 226 

Julius, 179 

Deacon Richard, 16, 25, 117, 
133, 190, 194 

R. N., 180 

R. P., 180 
Clark, Lieut. William, 58 
Clark & Chapman, 202 
Clary, Carver, 38 

Joseph, 84 

Lieut., 86 

Samuel, 86 
Clerk, 107 

Cobb, Anson, 61, 208 
Cold brook, 100, 191 



Colle, F., 203 

Color Guard, The, 182 

Combs, Joseph, 127 

Joshua, 127 
Committee of Correspondence, 
122, 23, 29, 30 

Safety, 129, 30 

First school, 215 
Common, 31, 116, 191, 217 

lands, 102, 26, 90 
Conant, Edward, 220 
Concord, 126, 29 
Congregational church, 104-106, 

112, 113 
" Conk " shell, 25, 106, 110, 111 
Connecticut, defense of, 132 

troops, 59 
Conscience, 228 
Continental Congress, 125, 26, 28, 

29 
Conversation w. Deacon Clapp, 
190 

Joseph Clapp, 194 

L. Rowe, 191 

S. D. Bardweil, 184 
Cooley, Abner, 87 

Andrew L., 178, 180 

Ensign, 86 

Simon, 83 
Corbin, Stephen, 112 
Corn fleet, 147 

house, Root's, 215 
Corroheagan, 18, 53, 54, 56, 57 
Counterfeit, 143, 44, 209 
Country stores, 184, 85, 86, 87 
Country Time & Tide, 214 
Cowdry, Nathaniel, 86 
Covenant, half-way, 228 
Cox, Simeon, 127 
Coy, Dr., 140 
Cranberry brook, 101 
Creamery, cooperative, 213 
Crocker, C. T., 199, 200 

J. A., 198 

W. P., 199, 200 
Cronyn, Rev. David, 220, 24 
Cross, F. C, 212, 14 
Crowfoot, Stephen, 83 
Currier Jonathan, 109 



256 



INDEX 



Cutlery, 202 



D 



Dam, 148, 155, 164, 165, 207 
Dame schools, 215 
Dancing, 193, 231 
Davis, W. T., 198 
Day, Henry J., 177, 179 

James S., 178, 180 

Sarah, 196 

Joseph, 42 
Deacon seat, 111 
Deane, Dr. E. A., 220, 224 
Decadence, 102 
Debates, 111 

Declaration of Independence, 120, 
28 

Rights, 127 
Democracy, 102-104, 109, 110, 

112, 16, 19, 32 
Democrats, 174, 175 
Desmond, Frank, 36 
Dewey, E. S., 178, 179 

Henry, 195 

T. M., 151, 157, 158 
Dickinson, Henry, 178, 180 

Joseph, 84, 86 

Moses, 86 

Nathaniel, 83 

Rev. Rodolphus, 117, 39, 74 

Thomas, 55 
Dike, Augustus, 209 

J. & Sons, 209 
Dinosaur, 46, 47 
Disestablishment, 116, 231 
District schools, 218 
Division of land, 84, 86 
Domer's Lane, 193 
"Don't," Capt., 163 
Douglas, Joshua, 87 
Downes, Samuel, 86 
Drake, 195 
Drinks, 141 

Drury, Lewis A., 177, 78, 80 
Dugan, Rev. W., 31 
Durfee, 31, 191 
Dustin, W. P., 200, 201 
Dyke Mill, 208, 210, 214 



E 



Education, 107 

Edwards, Jonathan, 230, 231 

Eliot, John, 52, 60, 75 

Election, 142 

Ellis, 84 

Elmer, Edward, 86 

English tongue, 222 

institutions, 104 
Episcopalian faction, 117, 18, 90 
Esleeck Paper Co., 202 
Established church, 115 
Estabrooke, Aaron, 31, 217 
Eustis, Col. Henry L., 181 
Ewers, Henry, 127 

John, 127 



Falls fight, 60, 93, 98 

Families in Montague, 103, 15, 38 

Fanueil hall, 122 

Farren, B. N., 199 

Fast day, 91 

Fay, Benjamin, 224 

G. F., 200 
Federal street, 16, 26, 29, 32, 83, 
84, 92, 134, 36, 38, 85, 88, 91 
Ferries, 138, 40, 56, 64, 65, 200 
Ferry, Col. Aretas, 30, 117, 207 
Feudal, 109 
Field, Alfred, 186 

Jonathan, 86 

Joseph, 86 

Joseph, Jr., 84 

Deacon Phineas, 63 

Deacon Samuel, 88 
Fine, church, 116 

province, 215 
Fire, 31, 215 
First church, 116 
Fisheries, 147-150 
Fishing Rod Factory, 155 
Fitchburg R. R., 146 
Fletcher, Alice, 67 
Floodwoods, 37, 188 
Footprints, 44, 47 



INDEX 



257 



Foreign goods, 135 

Fort Allis, 16, 92 

Forts, 17, 88-98 

Franklin Guards, 37, 188 

Frary, Nathaniel, 81, 85 

Freeholders, 105-109 

Free Soilers, 37 

French King rapids, 137, 165 

French & Indians, 14, 88, 89, 119, 

144 
Fuller, Asa, 127, 130 
Fulling mills, 29 
Funeral sermon, 229 
of Washington, 192 



G 



Gage, B., 135 

Gates, Rev. Aaron, 112, 14, 15, 16, 

230, 31 
General Court, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 
23, 30, 87, 100, 101, 118, 126, 
75, 215 
Gilbert, George, 134, 192 
Gill, 60 

Gilmore N., 220 
Glooskap, 51, 53, 66, 67 
Goddard, E. L., 178, 179 

P. H., 179, 180 

Sanford, 37, 38 
Goddard's brook, 101, 136 
Gookin, Daniel, 75 
Goss, Joshua, 127 

R. L., 220 
Gould, L. D., 179, 180 
Granby, Reuben, 127 
Grassy pond, 136 
Graves, Benjamin, 83, 86 

Ebenezer, 86 

Henry B., 180 

Isaac, 83, 86 

Jonathan, 84, 86 

Noah, 86 
Great Pond, 100, 136 

River, 16, 56, 57 

Spirit, 73 
Green, historian, 102 
Greenleaf, Col., H. S. 185 



Green River Works, 220 
Griesback, Wm., 218 
Griswold, Joseph, 201 

mill, 155 
Grout, A. W., 220 

Martin, 139 
Grout's corner, 138, 146 
Grover, 84 

Ebenezer, 127 

N., 135 

Capt. Thomas, 100, 136/ / £ 7 
Guard, harvest, 88 
Gunn, 103, 195, 197 

Apollos, 187 

Mrs. Apollos, 31 

Asahel, 31, 110, 127, 129, 132 

Chas. D., 178, 180, 194 

Eli, 132, 133 

Elihu, 20, 35, 185 

Elijah, 20, 174 

E. P., 20, 83, 134 

E. Payson, 178, 180, 181, 185 

Erastus P., 35, 185, 193 

Henry, 118, 193 

Israel, 31 

Deacon John, 31, 86, 110, 125, 
27,29 

Mrs. Lyman O., 132 

Dr. Moses, 27, 122, 25, 26, 27. 
28, 29, 215 

Moses, Jr., 31 

Nathaniel, 20, 84, 86 

Lieut. Nathaniel, 23, 27, 122, 28, 
31 

Otis B., 186 

Phelps, 20 

Salmon, 132, 193 

Samuel, 84, 86, 127 

Widow, 86 



H 



Hadley founders, 99 
Hale, Lieut., 165 
Hampshire towns, 130 

soldiers, 95 
Handicraft, 214 
Handicrafts, 213, 214 
Hartwell, E. F., 180 



258 



INDEX 



Hartwell, Jonathan, 38 
Harrington, Thomas F., 211 
Harvey, Jonathan, 127, 144 

Moses, 23, 27, 122, 27, 34 

Samuel, 20, 83, 86, 107, 108, 215 

Samuel, Jr., 86 

Widow, 86 
Harvey's path, 134 
Haskins, Mrs. Welsie Gunn, 143, 

216, 226 
Hazelton, C. W., 199, 200 
Henchman, Capt., 60 
Hennepin, Father, 73, 79 
Herschel, Clemens, 200 
Hewed logs, 108 
High school, 220 
Highway robbery, 144, 209 
Highways, 107 
Hills, 83, 84, 87, 101, 102, 133, 134, 

135, 138, 141, 191, 194, 215 
History, 52d Regt., 182 

Greenfield, 142 

Hadley, 143 
Hobmock, 64, 65 
Holden, C, 178 

D. D., 178, 180 

Geo. P., 180 
Holton, Merritt, 36 
Homer, our, 152 
Horton, J. W., 177, 178, 179 
Hosmer, James K., 182 

Nathan, 15 
Hotel, Montague, 117 
Hotels 193 
House,' 185, 86, 87, 89, 91, 92, 93, 

94, 215 
Householders, Dry hill, 135 
Hovey, Thomas, 83 
Hubbard, Daniel, 86 

Deacon, 84, 87 

Isaac, 84 

Isaac, Jr., 86 

John, 55 
Hunt, Deacon Ebenezer, 147 
Hunter, Calvin, 38 
Hunting hill, 20, 58, 83 

brook, 84 
Hunting Hills, 15, 16, 18, 81 90 et 
seq 



Ichnographs, 45, 46 
Imperial, 119, 128 
Independence, 130 
Indian, 87 et seq. 

craftsmen, 78, 79 

deeds, 55, 77 

government, 77-79 

lore, 66-74 

relics, 61, 62 

titles, 17, 52 

tribes in Conn. Valley, 80 
Irving, John, 101 
Irving's land, 136, 137 
Island, Captain Gunn's, 151 

Smead's, 54, 59, 60, 61, 154 



Jillson, C. H., 203 
John Russell Factory, 201 
Johnson, Jonathan, 16 
Judd, Sylvester, 51, 76 
Junto, Whig, 174 



Kangaroo rat, 48 

Kaulback, Geo. C, 177, 178, 180, 

181 
Keet, Deacon, 108 

Lieutenant, 129 

Thomas, 86 
Keith Paper Co., 201 
Kellogg, Bela, 194 

Charles, 194 

Ebenezer, 84 

Joseph, 55 
Kidd, Capt., 144 
Kilburn, Joseph R., 208, 229 
Kimball, Chas. F., 210 
King, Hophin, 155 

Ensign Simeon, 20, 30, 84, 105, 
106, 107, 108, 127, 130 
King Philip, 14, 17, 50, 59, 72, 81 
Kinsley, 84 



INDEX 



259 



Kings, Tudor, 104 
Knowlton, James K., 180 
Kunckwadchu, 53, 54, 57, 64, 90, 
100, 140 



Lafayette district, 84 
Lake Pleasant, 17, 18, 57, 61 
Lancy, Mr., 156 
Landings, 135, 137, 138 
Lands, 22, 23, 101 
Larence, Samuel, 127 
Lathrop, Rev. Dr., 23 
Lawrence, Charles, 211 

Col. Cephas, 211 

Henry, 211 

John, 212 
Lawson, C. N., 180 
Lawsuits, 148, 151 

religious, 116 
Leach, Deacon, 186 
Lee, Col. Horace C, 181 
Legislation, town, 110, 111 
Leonard, Aaron, 86 
Lexington, 127 
Libby prison, 182 
Library, 38, 223, 224 
"Lightfoot," 143 
Lincoln, Abraham, 175, 176 
Littlejohn, O. H., 179, 180 
Locks, 153, 54, 55, 57, 60, 64, 

98 
Log chapel, 181 
Logs, 151 
Lord, Capt., 188 

Thomas C, 37, 117 
Lord's day, 112 
Loveland, Chauncey, 19, 184 

Edward, 180 

Frederick A., 178, 180 

H. W., 178, 180 
Luey, Capt., 164 
Luggers, 156, 157 
Lumber, 147, 151, 153 
Lyceum, 35, 181, 223 

paper, 146 
Lyman, Fred, 133 



M 

Machinery, 213 

Mack, Capt. Elisha, 154, 155, 165 

Mail coach, 138, 139 

Main street, 29, 31, 141 

Majesty's justice, 112 

reign, 106, 109, 120 
Manley, Ebenezer, 180 
Mann, Benjamin, 29, 81 
Mantahelant, 53, 56, 57 
Manufactures, American, 125 
March meeting, 107, 115 
Market, Boston, 134 

Hartford, 134 
Marsh, Cyrus, 179, 180 

Deacon Lucius, 190 

Dpvtpr 44 45 

Ebenezer, 15, 20, 61, 84, 86, 106, 

107, 109, 127, 133, 217 
Ebenezer, Jr., 86 

E. N., 179 

John, 86 

Jonathan, 130 

Joshua, 37, 117 

Joshua, Jr., 174, 190 
Mashabisk, 50, 53, 57, 100 
Mass. & Vt. R. R., 146 
Mattamooash, 55 
Mattampash, 50, 52-57 
Matthews, James M., 177, 179, 

180 
Maypoles, 231 
Meadow fight, 96 

Montague, 21, 52, 72, 83 
Meetinghouse, 24, 25, 26, 96, 106, 

108, 109, 15, 16, 17, 21, 91, 
217, 26, 27 

Melvin, Capt., 98 

Merchants, T. Falls. 202 

Mermaid, The, 98 

Merrill, Rev., 31 

Mettawompe, 56, 100 

Militia, 130, 181 

Millers Falls, 139, 146, 220 

Mills, 134, 43, 92, 202, 207, 208, 

10,11 
Minister, Congregational, 230 
Minutemen, 27, 28, 127 



260 



INDEX 



Missouri Compromise, 175 
Mitchell, Joseph, 86 
Mob, 117 

Moderator, 107, 111 
Montague, Capt. William, 98 

Center, 136 

City, 42, 57, 138, 154, 164 

District, 100 

family, 100 

John, 98 

Major Richard, 98, 144 

Martha, 98 

Medad, 84 

Paper Co., 200, 201 

Peter, 98 

Richard, 98 

Samuel, 84, 98 
Monteacuto, Drogo de, 98 
Moody, Mrs. Eli, 193 
Mooney house, 84 
Moore, Alpheus, 37, 175, 194, 220 

Capt., 182 
Monroe, "Daddy," 193 
Morse, Steve, 152 
Morse's shop, 212 
Munsell, Otis E., 180 
Music, 147, 152 
Muster, 188 



N 



Name, town, 103 

Montague, 98 
Nash, Judah, 115, 190 

Rev. Judah, 24, 26, 106, 108, 
110,35,27,30 
Nepesoneag, 18, 55 
New Clairvaux, 213 

Education, 214 

Eng. towns, 102 
Newton, Deacon, 105 

Emerson, 178, 180 

Marcus, 178, 180 

Truman, 178, 180 
Nichols, Nathaniel, 127 
Non-consumption, 125, 126 
North, 176 
Northampton, 130 



Norton, Rev. Edward, 224 
Norwottuck, 56, 57 







Oakman, R. N., 39, 200, 220, 224 

R. N., Jr., 201 
Odin, 104 
Officers, town, 107 
Old schoolhouse, 191 
O'Meely, John, 178, 180 
Opera house, 203 
Orthodox, 115, 16, 17, 18 
Otozoum, 48 
Owls, 153 



Palisades, 16, 89, 92 
Pamphlets, 123, 124 
Papacomtuckquash, 17, 50, 56, 

100, 155 
Paris Exposition, 213 
Parish, 20, 228 
Parker, Capt., 188 
Parties, 175 
Partridge, Lemuel, 82 
Pastures, 100 
Patterson, David, 127 
Patrick, Meander, 179, 180 
Payne, George D., 135, 178, 179 

H. H., 178, 179 
Peace of Paris, 88 
Pedlers, 125 
Peeler, Chas. W., 178, 179 

Moses, 208 
Pepperell, Sir Wm., 94 
Peskeomskut, 50, 61, 63 
Pequoig, 50, 53 
Perkins, Joel, 127 

Rev., 181 
Phillips, Elisha, 127 

S. D., 178, 180 
Philip's War, 81, 100 
Pierce, Alfred, 177, 179 

J. S., 19, 178, 179 

Walter, 179 



INDEX 



261 



Pilots, river, 160, 161 
Pirates' Own Book, 144 
Plain, Millers, 137, 140 

Montague, 83, 86, 89, 106, 38, 
43, 53, 93 
Pocketbooks, 212 
Pocumtuck Confederacy, 80 
Pocumtucks, 50, 52-57 
Political speech, 174 
Pond brook, 133, 134 
Pond, G. S, 178, 179 
Poor farm, 191 
Pound the Ring, 217 
Postrider, 142 
Potter, James W., 177, 179, 180 

Joseph, 178 

Warren J., 181 
Pratt, David, 180 
Prayer, day of, 126 
Preaching, 96, 105, 107 
Precinct meeting, 95, 105, 106 
Pressey, E. P., 210, 213, 214 

Mrs. Grace H., 210, 213 
Prices, 129, 130 
Priest, 230 

Primer, New England, 216 
Printing, 210 
Proprietors, 21, 22, 23, 81, 84, 100, 

154 
Pro-slavery, 174 
Province, 88, 106, 125, 126 

land, 18 
Provincial Congress, 126, 127, 128 
Pryson, Widow, 26 
Pupils at Center, 192 

South, 194 
Puritans, 23, 40, 52, 63, 76, 109, 

12, 76, 228, 229, 31 
Pynchon, Major John, 55, 57, 82 

William, 77 



Q 



Quinetuk, 50, 52 

R 

Rafts, 151, 152, 155 
Railroad, 130, 137 



Rand, William, 86 
Records, Montague, 95, 100, 151 
Red shop, 207 
Reed, Thomas, 59 
Regiments, 181, 182 
Register of Deeds, 187 
Religions, 181, 227, 230 
Reporter, Turners Falls, 200 
Republican, Springfield, 151, 208 
Revival, 230, 231 
Reynolds, Geo., 180 
Rice, C. H. & Co., 203 

Oscar, 92 
Richardson, Chas. A., 35 

Israel, 86 

J. Dike, 209 
Ripley, Brigham, 179, 180 

Frank, 180 
Rist & Conant, 202 

G. L., 202, 220 
River, Deerfield, 165 

Fall, 165 

Miller's, 101, 133, 35, 36, 37, 76, 
57, 65 

Pequoig, 90, 91 

Sawmill, 106, 107, 33, 34 

trade, 154 
Rivermen, 151, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 

64, 65 
Roads, 133 et seq. 
Rockwell, John, 35 

Seymour, 34, 35, 186, 220 
Rockwood, Elihu R., 179, 180 
Rogers' Rangers, 140 
Root, Capt. Spencer, 140 

Deacon, 117 

Elihu, 190, 208 

Elijah, 117, 140 

Elisha, 29, 138, 187 

Harry, 190 

J. H., 38, 187, 190, 224 

Jonathan, 86, 105 

Joseph, 19, 20, 29, 30, 31, 32, 
83, 86, 95, 96, 100, 106, 107, 
108, 109, 110, 12, 13, 141 

Moses, 35, 185 

Oliver, 217 

Salmon, 185, 190 

Selah, 190 



262 



INDEX 



Root, Solomon, 101 
Rose, Widow, 26 
Round ball, 38 
Rowe, 84 

Daniel, 133, 190, 192 

George, 194 

John, 192 

Richard, 192 
Rugg, Amos, 30, 212 

Frank, 36 
Russell, Daniel, 84 

Jonathan, 86 

"Uncle Billy," 153 



Sabbath, 76, 106, 10, 42, 226 
Salary, minister's, 115 
Sanderson, Frederick, 178, 179 
Sandford, H. W., 179 
Sartel, Salvenus, 127 
Sawin, A. H., 179 

John P., 178, 179 
Sawmill river ford, 92 
Sawwatapskechuwas, 55, 56 
Sawyer, Charles, 127 

Ephraim, 86 

Jedediah, 86 
Saxon heart, 103 
Sayings, 103, 186 
School districts, 218, 221-223 
Schoolhouse, 108 

brown, 216, 217 

in village, 194 

meadow flats, 158, 160 

new, 213 
"Scotland," 21, 134, 190 
Scott, Absolom, 86 

Everett, 31, 217 

Ira, 127 

John, 30, 86, 108 

Jonathan, 86 

Reuben, 108, 109, 226 

Richard, 84, 86 

Samuel, 86 

William, 84, 86 

William, Jr., 86 
Scouts, 88, 89, 91, 96 



Scripture, 139, 229 
Sea change, 104, 119 
Searles, Joshua, 127 

T. E, 212 
Seaters, 108 

Selectmen, 105, 107, 12, 30, 31 
Self government, 123, 124 
Severance, E. W., 194 

Joseph, 96 

Moses, 113 

Ptolomy P., 165 
Shaw, Roland, 88 

S. S., 178, 179, 180 

Thaxter, 39, 118, 88, 20, 24 
Shays' rebellion, 166-169 
Sheldon, George, historian, 51, 60, 

62, 63, 75, 77, 208 
Shepard, Frank, 28 

Henry, 16, 28, 37, 92, 190 

Joel, 28, 132 
Shoe shop, 194 
Simblin, Sieur, 90, 91, 92 
Singing, 151, 152, 158, 163 
Slavery, 174, 175 
Smead, Ezra, 127 

John, 90, 91 

Samuel, 20, 105, 107, 109 
Smith, Albert, 178, 179 

Asa, 127 

Daniel, 84, 86 

Elijah, 127, 143 

Ezekiel, 86 

Hamilton, 133 

Joseph, 84 

Luke, 84, 86 

Nathan, 109 ' 

Nathaniel, 84, 86, 129 

Parley H., 178, 179 

Rufus, 127 

Samuel, 83, 86, 127 

Samuel Billings, 86 

Stephen, 86 

Zebediah, 86 
Soldiers, Revolutionary, 132 
Solley, Mrs. G. W., 210 

Rev. G. W., 218 
Spaulding, Frederick A., 179, 180 

Stephen F., 179, 180 
Spear, N. H., 178, 179, 180 



INDEX 



263 



Spencer, Capt., 153 

Otis, 179 
Spirit of '76, 132 
Sprague, David, 83, 127 

Ebenezer, 108, 109, 226 
Stages, 139 
Stamp Act, 120 

Steamboats, 147, 55, 56, 57, 58, 
62, 63, 64 

Companies, 158 
Stevens, A. E., 180 

Chas. A., 199, 200 

Douglas A., 178, 180, 181 

E. N., 180 
Stewart, Dwight, 180 
St. Francis village, 144 
Stone, Lucien H., 38, 178, 179, 
194 

W. Cheney, 178, 179 
Stowell, Manley, 178, 179 
Sunderland, 81, 88, 91, 92. 98, 
100, 111, 134 

line, old, 136 
Sunkamachue, 56 
Sun worship, 62, 63 
Swampfield, 17, 18, 29, 82, 100 



Tacitus, historian, 102 
Taft, 84 

Ethan A., 180 

Merrill, 199 

Morton E., 180 
Taukkanackoss, 59 
Taylor, Chester, 171 

Henry, 184, 192 

Ira, 192 

Moses, 106, 111, 215 

Nathaniel, 129 

Obed, 190 

Samuel, 20, 83, 86, 127 

Zebina, 190 
Taverns, 29, 117, 133 et seq. 
Tavern tales, 143, 144 
Taxation, 116, 119, 122 
Teachers, 194 
Thacher, witch, 143 



Thayer, Elihu P., 152, 165 

W. W., 224 

& Dodge, 212 
Theology, 229 
Thornton, A., 53 

Rufus, 54, 57, 61, 83 
Thread the Needle, 217 
Three mile addition, 18 

R's, 222 
"Thunderbolt," 209 
Tilden, Ben, 133, 134 

Elisha, 132 
Titles, 109 
Toby, Mt., 100, 133 
Toll, 152, 153, 154, 165 
Toomer, George, 84 
Tories, 128, 129 
Town meeting, 96, 106, 107, 108, 

14, 23 
Transporting children, 220 
Townshend Act, 121, 122 
Trinity Church, 115, 139 
Trizel, Elisha, 127 
Turners Falls, 13, 15, 28, 59, 61, 

147 et seq. 
Turners Falls Co., 198 
Turners Falls Machine Co., 202 
Tuttle, 84 

Ebenezer, 84 

Nathan, 86 

Stephen, 27 
Two mile addition, 18, 23, 101 
Tyranny, 112, 113 
Tythingmen, 26, 110, 116 



U 



Unchurched, 116 
Unincorporated land, 18 
Unitarian church, 115, 116, 118, 
119, 213 



Village, Montague, 21, 58, 83, 84, 
134, 188, 189 
Shop, 212, 213 



264 



INDEX 



Virgin, E. H., 209 
Vision, King Philip's, 233 

Montague City, 235 

Millers river scheme, 235-238 

Old town, 239 
Volunteers, 131 



W 

Wadanumin, 56 
Wages, 130 
Walker, Major W., 182 
Wait, Chas. B., 178, 179 

David, 164 

George F., 178, 179 
War, Civil, 177 et seq. 

of "1812," 169-171 

Mexican, 171-174 
Ward & Lanois, 212 

Elisha, 194 

J. S., 207, 212 

Squire Henry, 185, 186 

Truman, 179 

"Uncle Jock," 194 
Warner, Daniel, 83 

D. L., 180 

Eleazar, 83, 86 
Waterman, S. S., 179 
Wattowolunksin, 50, 52-57 
Weaks, Uriah, 12. 
Webster, A. D., 200 

A. Monroe, 178, 179 

Charles, 180 

F. I., 202 

Joseph F., 180 



Weisbrod, Emil, 212, 218, 220 
Wells, Col. B. S., 115, 190, 193 

Clapp, 30, 190, 193 

Dr. Henry, 38, 171, 193 
Wennaquabin, 60 
Whigs, 36, 173, 174 
Whippingpost, 116 
White, Chas. P., 178, 179, 180 
Whiting, Thomas, 127 
Whitmore's brook, 18 
Whitney, Ebenezer, 132 

Ephraim, 130 

E. W., 180 
Wild animals, 143 
Willard, William, 84 
Williams, Col. Samuel, 127 

William, 105 

Tyler, 180 
Wilson, 84 
Winslow, James, 130 
Wise, C. P., 202 
Witch, 143 
Wood, Mr., 156 

minister's, 108, 110 

schoolhouse, 32, 191 
Worship, neglect of, 112 
Wright, 84 

Carl, 212 

Elisha, 127, 128 

Dr., 61 

Frederick L., 179, 180 

Gaines T., 180, 181 

George G., 61, 179, 180 

Judah, 26, 27, 86, 122 

Liberty, 133 

Monroe, 180 




THE END. 



ANOTHER WORK by the writer of The History of 
Montague 
The Vision of New Clair vaux, a reasonable dream 
of a life that partly is and partly is not in Montague. 
Handsomely printed, 8vo, 218 pp., $1.25 net. 

FORTHCOMING POETIC DRAMA, by the same 
writer 
The Tragedy of King Philip, events, historic and 
fancied, attending the "Falls fight" are shown in an 
atmosphere of conflicting Indian and Puritan ideals. 
Adapted for village pageants. Effective historic 
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